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THE AZTEC CALENDAR STONE. 



MEXICO AS IT IS 



BEING 



NOTES OF A RECENT TOUR IN THAT COUNTRY 



WITH SOME PRACTICAL INFORMATION FOR TRAVELLER^ 

IN THAT DIRECTION, AS ALSO SOME STUDY OF 

THE CHURCH QUESTION 



BY 



ALBERT ZABRISKIE GRAY 



AUTHOR OF "THE LAND AND THE LIFE, OR SKETCHES AND STUDIES IN PALES- 
TINE " 



New York 

E. P. BUTTON & COMPANY 

713 Broadway 

1878 




Copyright, 

By ALBERT ZABRISKIE GRAY, 

1877. 



Stereotyped at the Church Charity Foundation, 
Brooklyn^ L. I. 

-17 / 



<k 







TO ONE 

IN WHOSE CHARACTER AND CULTURE 

I RECOGNIZE THE VINDICATION 

OF INTELLIGENT AND CONSCIENTIOUS TRAVEL 

THIS LITTLE VOLUME 

IS MOST FILIAL LY 

INSCRIBED 



"A good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths, 
that spring out of valleys and hills ; a land of wheat and barley, and 
vines and fig-trees, and pomegranates ; a land of oil olive, and honey ; 
a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not 
lack anything in it ; a land, whose stones are iron, and out of whose 
hills thou mayest dig brass." — Deut. viii. 7, 8, 9. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 



I. — Prefatory Chapter ..... 9 

11. — New York to Vera Cruz . . . .17 

in. — Vera Cruz to Orizaba . . . . 27 

iv. — Orizaba to the City of Mexico . . • 35 

v. — The City of Mexico ..... 44 

vi. — The Environs of the City of Mexico . 56 

vii. — The Environs of the City of Mexico (continued) 65 

viii. — The Environs of the City of Mexico (continued) 71 

ix. — The Environs of the City of Mexico (concluded) 81 

x. — Puebla and Cholula . . . . .91 

XI. — Cholula (continued) . . . . .103 

xii.. — How we tried to get to Xalapa . . . 113 

xiii. — The Church in Mexico , . . . 127 



" One circumstance must be observed by all who travel in Mexican 
territory. There is not one human being or passing object to be seen 
that is not in itself a picture, or which would not form a good subject 
for the pencil. The Indian women, with then plaited hair, and little 
children slung to their backs, their large straw hats, and petticoats of 
two colors — the long strings of arrieros with their loaded mules, and 
swarthy, wild-looking faces — the chance horseman who passes with his 
sarape of many colors, his high ornamented saddle, Mexican hat, 
silver stirrups, and leathern boots, this is picturesque. Salvator Rosa 
and Hogarth might have travelled here to advantage, hand-in-hand ; 
Salvator for the sublime, and Hogarth taking him up where the sub- 
lime became the ridiculous." 

From " Life in Mexico" by Madame C — de la B . 



PREFACE. 



APART of this little volume first appeared as 
letters in the Hartford " CHURCHMAN." The 
completion of the series, and their presentation 
in book-form, was urged upon the writer by kind 
friends. He complies with their wishes the more 
readily when he reflects that possibly some service 
may be rendered to those intending to visit our fair 
" Sister Republic." 

This service may be increased by embodying in 
these prefatory remarks some practical information 
and hints with regard to the character of the country 
and the pre-requisites of travel and residence therein. 

Mexico is a republic, modeled very much upon 
the Constitution of the United States. It consists of 
twenty-seven states, one territory, and what is called 
the Federal District, which includes the capital. 



10 PREFACE. 

The total area is more than twelve hundred thousand 
square miles, and contains a population of about 
nine millions, of which a large proportion is aborigi- 
nal Aztec blood. 

The principal exports are gold and silver, in 
which the country possesses inexhaustible wealth. 
It also produces coffee, tobacco, sugar, indigo, 
vanilla, hides, dye-woods, fruits, etc. etc. There is 
no richer region in the world ; very few lands are as 
rich in all that constitutes material prosperity and 
promise ; and this, of course, is largely due to the 
fact of its comprising, in its comparatively limited 
area, almost every soil and every temperature. The 
great range of the Sierra Madre runs through the 
whole country, and thus affords a wonderful variety 
of vegetation. 

In the Tierra Caliente of the coast you have the 
fecund and feverish tropics. On the mountain 
slopes and plateaux you can enjoy a climate of per- 
fect salubrity and refreshment, and find growing, 
side by side, the corn and the banana, the palm and 
the tobacco ; and in the still higher regions — of the 
capital and elsewhere — you will sleep all the year 



PREFACE. 1 1 

under a blanket, while feasting every day on the 
lusciousness, brought by a few hours of rail from 
the burning plains seven thousand feet below. And 
finally, to complete the charm, you have, rising 
above all and ever refreshing, the majestic peaks of 
Orizava, Popocatepetl and Istacyhuatl — with their 
eternal snows — more than fifteen thousand feet 
above the sea. You must consequently take with 
you some variety of clothing, in preparation for all 
these temperatures, never forgetting the overcoat 
and rug for evening and night, always remembering 
that it is better to have too much than too little. 

The history of the country is soon sketched, 
though do not forget to take with you a small 
edition of Prescott's charming narrative, as also a 
copy of Madame Calderon's fascinating letters, if you 
can procure it. Any one of the diaries of Cortes, 
Bernal Diaz, or of the histories of Clavigero and 
Herrera would add immensely to the interest of a 
visit to Mexico, while violating, of course, a canon 
of travel in incumbrance. 

We all know something about the earliest histori- 
cal inhabitants — the Toltecs and the Aztecs, What 



12 PREFACE. 

New Yorker has quite forgotten the thrill of interest 
with which he inspected "the Aztec children," 
exhibited many years ago by the indefatigable show- 
man, and classed in memory somewhat promiscu- 
ously with the mysterious " What is it," the uncom- 
fortable twins of Si am, and innumerable other hisi 
natures of the age ? 

Prescott tells us, in his romantic style, of how 
these semi-civilized Aztecs, under their gorgeous king, 
were cruelly conquered and completely subjugated 
by the ruthless valor of Cortes and his little band of 
braves, and then we learn how at once decrepid 
Spain began to feast and fatten on the exuberant 
land, enriching her Court, her Church, her com- 
merce in the life-blood of a noble race, whose souls' 
salvation she ever professed as her first aim ! 

The Spaniards retained full possession of the 
country until the beginning of this century, when 
already a large, mixed, so-called Mexican popula- 
tion existed, essentially Spanish in character, but 
imbued with many of the revolutionary ideas of 
that day, which were soon precipitated by the 
reckless policy of the mother country into revolt. 



PREFACE. 13 

Its first leader was a priest named Hidalgo, who 
soon sealed his patriotism with his blood. 

The country was declared independent in 1813, 
and has continued in a pitiable state of unrest and 
warfare — both internal and external — ever since. 
The internecine struggles have been principally due 
to the unprincipled ambition of such men as Iturbide 
and Santa Anna, and alas, Mexico has been blessed 
with but few rulers, who, like Juarez, seem to have 
comprehended the great principles of their blood- 
bought Constitution ! The Spaniards were not 
finally expelled till 1829, the same year in which 
slavery was abolished. 

The unhappy country has suffered from several 
invasions. The first of any importance was the war 
with the United States, which ended with the indem- 
nified cession by Mexico of Texas, Upper California, 
etc., in 1848. In 1862 the allied powers of England, 
France and Spain attempted to obtain financial 
satisfaction from the republic, and later, under the 
armed 'auspices of France, Maximilian was declared 
Emperor. His short but brilliant reign — three 
years of tragic struggle — set in clouds and blood. 



14 PREFACE. 

He was captured and executed in June, 1867. The 
country resumed its republican Constitution, and 
enjoyed a period of comparative peace and prosperity 
under the presidential rule of Juarez. It is only of 
late that a complete revolution has again been 
attempted; and to-day we have the unedifying 
spectacle of the recent and able President Lerdo de 
Tejada a powerless exile, the brave but revolutionary 
General Diaz occupying his seat, while a third as- 
pirant, the ex- Chief- Justice Iglesias is also among 
" the outs," and engaged in issuing pronunciamentos 
at a safe distance. 

It is estimated that the poor, groaning country 
has suffered a change of rule, on an average, once 
a year since its independent existence. 

With regard, again, to a few practical hints 
for those intending to visit the country, let us 
briefly say : The best time for a tour in Mexico is 
the winter — the safest from fevers — though at any 
season it is best not to linger any longer than abso- 
lutely necessary upon the coast. You can go by 
way of New Orleans- — making a shorter sea- trip — 
or from New York via Havana, in which case a 



PREFACE. 15 

passport is required. American, English, or French 
gold will take you anywhere, and give a comfortable 
premium besides, leaving you under the pleasant 
impression that you are making money all the time. 
But of course you will take a letter of credit, which, 
following the above premium rule, will load your 
pockets and trunks with Mexican bullion, and keep 
you somewhat nervous in brigand neighborhoods. 

Which leads to one final and friendly advice: 
take no nervousness with you. Take patience, 
good-temper, charitable judgment, considerate kind- 
ness — take, in short, your Christianity with you, and 
you cannot fail to have a most delightful time. 

All travellers may be classified under two heads : 
the men who have been everywhere, passed their 
best years in genteel wanderings, and yet have 
never really seen anything, and can only be aroused 
to enthusiasm by the discussion of such a question 
as the comparative merits of table d'hbtes; and 
again, those who cannot take a turn down the street 
without a fruitful harvest of observation, and to 
whom one stroll amid the stimulating scenes of a 
foreign land is almost an education 



i6 



PREFACE. 



To the former a trip to Mexico would be simply 
adding another — perhaps a somewhat stranger feather 
to the cap of voyager conquest and conceit — to 
the latter it would prove a feast forever. 




II. 

NEW YORK TO VERA CRUZ. 

IT may be said to require a winter trip southward 
to appreciate the extent and advantages of our 
own country. To leave New York in a winter 
storm, and in sixty-five hours to glide into a sister 
city revelling in spring sunshine and flowers — in 
other words, to travel 1,500 miles in order to take a 
steamer from New Orleans — makes one realize what 
a wonderful land we live in ! A five miles walk in 
the Mammoth Cave shows us again that even "under 
the earth," American nature keeps up her grand 
scale ; and a visit to the motley Louisiana Legislature 
convinces one that in radical changes American 
humanity is resolved not to be below the mark. 

New Orleans is a fair city, and deserves a better 
lot than she has found in these latter days ; but we 
rejoiced to remark a hopeful spirit in her better peo- 



1 8 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

pie, and a conviction that the era of " carpet-bag " 
misrule is nearly past. 

Certainly no one can stroll through the streets and 
squares of her old French quarter without yielding 
to a charm, that carries one dreamily over land and 
sea to many a distant scene and delightful hour of 
wandering in regions so little known to the rushing 
American — the south of France. The old cathedral 
and the buildings about it — formerly occupied by 
the French authorities — are alone worth a visit from 
any distance. We have nothing like them elsewhere 
in " the States." The square around which they 
stand is kept in that precise French style which in 
a land like ours, has at least the striking attraction 
of contrast. 

And the people themselves — I mean of course the 
Creole part of them — seem to cling to their former 
nationality. We were informed that many of them 
are never seen out of the French quarter, where in- 
deed French names and French signs meet you at 
every step. 

And, before leaving the old city, we would speak a 
word of almost unqualified commendation with regard 



NEW YORK TO VERA CRUZ. 1 9 

to its principal hotel. We were told that the St. 
Charles is " run " with but little profit to its propri- 
etors and managers, and they certainly deserve great 
credit for the excellence of everything connected with 
it. To one seeking a mild winter climate, and who 
has suffered from the discomforts of Florida and other 
parts of the South, this word may be of service. We 
speak of Florida as we knew some parts of it two or 
three years ago. 

The steamers from New Orleans to Vera Cruz are 
of the well-known " Alexandre " line, starting from 
New York. Compared with our trans- Atlantic 
steamers, they are small and only tolerably comfort- 
able. The great drawback to the voyage is their 
stopping at intermediate ports, and thus giving the 
nauseated traveller two unnecessary days. There is 
nothing to see or to do at these ports. You lie off in 
the open roadstead, two or three miles from shore, 
and of course roll most unhappily at the slightest 
suggestion of Boreas. You have hardly time to go 
ashore, and indeed are tantalized by the distant and 
inviting verdure of the Mexican tropics. What is 
most urgently demanded for the tourist in that direc- 



20 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

tion is a first-class line of steamers running directly 
from New Orleans, or from New York to New Or- 
leans, and return, stopping only at Havana and Vera 
Cruz. 

There is not a decent harbor in the Gulf of Mexico. 
As our good captain remarked, * If your vessel does 
come to any grief, you would hardly know what 
port to make for.' 

The city of Vera Cruz — the main port of the re- 
public on the Atlantic side — lies on the open coast, 
only protected from the " wild waves," by some mer- 
ciless reefs and £he picturesque island fort of San 
Juan d'Ulloa, where the Spaniards under Cortes 
first landed. As is the fashion at this season of 
the Mexican year, we arrived in " a Norther." 
But fortune, as we know, ever "favors the brave," 
and a brave man did we have in our captain. He 
is said to be the only man of the Line who can do 
what he did that rough morning. Being a pilot as 
well, he took his vesssl right in between the reefs and 
through the gale, and brought her to her anchorage 
without a scratch. It was a beautiful and thrilling 
thing to see. There were but four vessels in the 



NEW YORK TO VERA CRUZ. 21 

anchorage; among them, as we were informed, 
lay half of the Mexican navy, viz., two small, 
neat-looking vessels, about the size of our revenue 
cutters. 

Once landed — not without a surf- drenching, how- 
ever — -at the Customs quay, you are met and sur- 
rounded at once with the sights and scenes, the 
novelties and oddities of a widely- differing civiliza- 
tion. 

The old town of " the Conquerors," fondly named 
by them Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, has been much 
abused by many disgusted travellers, arriving and 
departing from its sea-beaten and sand-girt walls, 
and we must admit that, with its glaring white- 
wash, and open street- drains, and clouds of scavenger 
buzzards, its thousand smells, and sickliest repu- 
tation, it may be not inaptly compared to a " whited 
sepulchre;" but withal we have rarely seen a 
town more picturesque — well and compactly built — 
one of the few cities left in North America that have 
retained their walls; its many domes and glaring 
colors giving a semi- Oriental aspect to its architec- 
ture, and its patioed houses, the tropical vegetation 



22 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

of its squares and alameda, adding a charm to the 
whole, only to be experienced in those fair and fatal 
southern lands. 

But we would hasten to qualify the last alarming 
adjective by remarking, that during the winter 
months, or in other words, the prevalence of " Nor- 
thers," the terrible scourge of the " Vomito " is 
comparatively little felt, and scarcely to be dreaded. 
Wherefore remember, impatient and irritated trav- 
eller, tossed and tumbled and literally thrown ashore 
by the force of whistling wind and regardless surf, 
that this very discomfort is thy salvation ! Without 
these forcible reminders of northern inclemency, 
Vera Cruz would be all but uninhabitable, and thy 
curious visit utterly out of the. question. 

As it was, we were obliged to remain in the quaint 
old city about a week altogether, and were assured we 
ran no risk in doing so, though we believe it is es- 
sential to exercise the greatest caution at all seasons. 
Nothing can be more interesting than a stroll through 
the straight and narrow streets, for the Spaniards seem 
to have learned at least one cr od lesson from the na- 
tives, in laying out their towns with great regularity. 



NEW YORK TO VERA CRUZ. 23 

Looking into dark, and we must add, rather 
dirty rooms, you will see the native women on their 
knees most industriously kneading their tortillas, 
using the same curious low, inclined stone stand, on 
which their mothers worked long before the historic 
era of the Montezumas. Indeed, in features, dress, 
and customs, the several millions of native Indians 
seem to have undergone as little change as the desert 
Arabs. The modifications are all seen in the two or 
three millions of mixed blood, which are in fact the 
restless, revolutionary and governing race of the 
country. 

But to pass down the sun-baked street a little far- 
ther, let us pause for a moment to examine the work- 
ings of this cigar-factory. Here are half a dozen or 
more of men and boys diligently and deftly selecting, 
rolling, pointing, etc., from not very tempting heaps of 
tobacco rags, finishing off those neat ends with some 
very doubtful-looking grease, and one of these indivi- 
duals, (only one, I am happy to say) using occasionally 
his tongue in the operation. A little farther on we 
come upon the washing-square, and, as usual in 
Southern lands, we find a very picturesque scene. 



24 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

A well-arranged and clean-looking series of troughs, 
under cover, and filled with pure looking water, and 
the whole enlivened by the merry laugh and jest of 
the many brown and bright-eyed and busy lavan- 
deras. 

And, speaking of water, we cannot omit allusion 
to an establishment of baths we visited, one of the 
most luxurious places we ever saw, almost fulfilling 
the ideal of " marble halls " and tropic glory. It is 
near the impressive old monastic building and credit- 
able collection of the Public Library. 

There is one thing in which Vera Cruz is not 
deficient, and indeed, it is about the only article of 
which Mexico seems to enjoy an embarras de. 
richesses, viz., churches. The disestablishment of the 
Church and the confiscation of ecclesiastical property 
has, of course, rendered it impossible to sustain the 
extraordinary number of churches and convents 
with which the generation of Cortes and their 
successors, have covered the land. It is a com- 
mon thing to find of several in an urban or 
rural neighborhood, the half abandoned. How they 
still maintain so many is a mystery, and yet not 



NEW YORK TO VERA CRUZ. 25 

much of one, after all, to him who understands some- 
what the workings of Rome. 

The cathedral of Vera Cruz is an imposing edifice, 
both externally and internally. The external effect is 
rendered not a little bizarre by the black mass of car- 
rion birds, to which we have before alluded, and which, 
especially toward nightfall, are seen to settle on domes 
and pinnacles, and indeed on every salient summit ; 
and weirdly significant, several of the stronger ones 
pushing their way to a perch on the highest point of 
the cross itself. 

Internally the church is large, and generally plain, 
but about its principal altars rich in precious metals. 
Here will we begin to realize a little of that fabulous 
wealth, with which the conquistadores sought, for 
their souls' sake, tarnished by so many crimes, to 
buy a churchly indulgence ; but a large part of 
which the too willing Church has been unable to 
preserve from the necessities of later and less scrupu- 
lous criminality. 

Before leaving Vera Cruz, and for the sake of 
common charity, let me warn brother tourists against 
a hotel, into which they may, by accident, stray, viz., 



26 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

the " Hotel des Diligencias." It seems to be man- 
aged a good deal upon the principle of the " golden 
egg" story. Its rooms are among. the best in town, 
and its situation one of the finest, but there is an 
evident and painful intention on the part of the 
female proprietor to make the most of the disadvan- 
tages under which you labor in claiming her hospi- 
tality. 

And this leads us to remark more seriously that 
the drainage arrangements of this hotel, as indeed of 
almost every house and every place we saw in 
Mexico, are simply execrable and deadly. If no 
other malarious reason existed, this horror of filth 
would be enough of itself to breed a pestilence. De- 
cency would forbid further details of the nuisance, 
but decency makes it a duty to protest and to warn 
against an evil which must be impairing so widely and 
so deeply the health and prospects of the nation. 



III. 

VERA CRUZ TO ORIZABA. 

THE city of Vera Cruz lies on a sandy and for- 
bidding stretch of coast, but with nothing in 
its apparent character to indicate the causes of its 
great unhealthiness. The original town of Villa Rica 
was built a little to the north of the present site; and 
we believe the fatal vomito was not known till some 
time after the conquest. There seems to be no 
topographical or other reason why the city— the 
main seaport of the Republic, and indeed the key to 
its whole Atlantic coast — should have been erected 
where it is. There are several other points more 
sheltered, and in every way favorable ; but such se- 
lections, as the student of history soon learns, are 
more often made from superstitious or traditional 
than from physical reasons. It is distant about 



28 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

two hundred and eighty miles from the City of 
Mexico. 

Modern and mainly English enterprise has con- 
structed a railway over that distance, which may be 
called one of the wonders and delights of the world ; 
its eighteen hours of transit, however, being less 
wonderful than the story told of Montezuma, that 
his table was regularly supplied with fish caught in 
the Gulf the day before ! This railway to the capital 
may be said to traverse almost every clime, showing 
the unparalleled advantages of the country. From 
the tropical exuberance of the Tierre Caliente to the 
temperate slopes of Orizaba, and the fertility of the 
Mexican plateau, the traveller passes with amazing 
facility and impression, the only drawback to the 
journey being found in the fact that the spirit of 
the Mexican age has seen fit to import for the 
benefit of the above-mentioned traveller the most un- 
comfortable of old-fashioned American cars. 

As to the hour of starting, we fancy there will be 
but one voice among all respectable readers of this 
chapter. It was simply heathenish. The one passen- 
ger-train from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico 



VERA CRUZ TO ORIZABA. 29 

leaves about midnight,* the sole advantage to the 
tourist being that it makes his passage over the 
torrid plains more comfortable ; but of course he 
must lose his first fascinating impression of their 
luxuriant beauty. 

And here comes the first startling reminder as to 
the insecurity of the country. One entire car is 
devoted to the escort of fifty troops, whose duty it 
is to see you safely through the regions of lawless- 
ness and rebellion — either term doing as well as the 
other ! 

Your fellow-passengers consist of a few adventu- 
rous spirits like yourself, who, tired of ordinary 
humdrum travel, would willingly incur a little risk to 
visit " the halls of the Montezumas," and, besides 
them, a not very prepossessing number of the pre- 
sent native occupants of those so-called halls. With 
their dusky faces, their gorgeous sombreros, and 
other caballero dress, and their incessant cigarettes, 
we must observe they do not form the most agreea- 
ble addition to the company, and we could not but 

* Or rather, left, at the time of our visit. 



30 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

regret to observe how soon some of our American 
compatriots, who would feel most aggrieved to be 
denied the designation of gentlemen, adopted the 
rude and vulgar custom of smoking in cars and 
dining-rooms, regardless of the presence of ladies. 
In such a motley company we rode through the 
long, dark hours of the tropic night, solaced indeed 
by the spicy breaths and breezes that came through 
the open windows to our dreamy sense. 

It was six hours to Orizaba, and from the glare 
of Vera Cruz, from the gloom of our night's ride, we 
found ourselves in the early morn amid a scene of 
such marvellous beauty as was itself much more 
than worth our thousands of miles of journeying 
over land and sea. It was a revelation of natural 
glory. It was Switzerland beside Andalusia, Norway 
by the Delta, England and Italy side by side. Above 
us towered grand mountains, bold-peaked, yet clad 
in living green, until their loftiest summit, known as 
Orizaba, eternally white with snow, reached an ele- 
vation far beyond the highest point of Europe. 

The city itself is situated about four thousand feet 
above the sea, and thus enjoys a perfect climate all 



VERA CRUZ TO ORIZABA. 3 1 

the year round, neither sultry, as it is lower down at 
Cordova and Vera Cruz, nor almost exhaustingly 
rarefied as it is on the higher plateau of Mexico. 
On the surrounding plains and slopes grow luxuriantly 
the products of almost every clime — truly " a land of 
corn and wine and oil, wherein thou mayest eat 
bread without scarceness, and out of whose hills thou 
mayest dig brass." It was everywhere like a garden 
of beauty and fertility, with the quaint old city nes- 
tled most picturesquely and invitingly in the midst. 

We soon found ourselves in an exceedingly com- 
fortable hotel, and were thus enabled to recommend 
Orizaba as one of the most attractive winter resorts 
we have ever had the delight of visiting. Certainly, 
when considering the climate, the scenery, the com- 
fort and reasonableness of living, we can hardly recall 
any spot in either the East or West so advantageous. 
A walk through the clean and regular streets re- 
veals all the charming characteristics of Spanish life — 
the large, low, iron-grated windows, with dark-hued 
senoras idly looking out, and glimpses beyond of 
sunny patios, luxuriant with flowers and plashing 
fountains. And then the old churches, glaring and 



.32 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

crumbling without, tawdry within, a brace of not un- 
happy-looking cripples at the door, and inside the 
usual assortment of mantillaed dames and mumbling 
beggars, a drowsiness and a dreaminess of both faith 
and climate investing the whole with a charm which 
no soul, with any music, can resist. 

Stop with me a moment in this old lane leading 
out from the suburbs. It is narrow, neglected, grass- 
grown. On each side stands a half-ruined church 
or monastery, nearly overrun with tropic growth. 
And so all along, as far as the eye can reach, ex- 
tends this most exuberant and radiant vegetation — a 
vista of natural glory, animated with the continual 
passing to and fro of the natives in their picturesque 
national costumes. The vanity displayed by some 
of the young caballeros is so genuine, and, we 
may say, unaffected, as to be simply amusing. Both 
their horses and themselves are tricked out in the 
gayest style from head to foot ; their sombreros like 
a parasol in size, and glittering with gold or silver, a 
man being known in Mexico very much by the /agon 
of his hat. They are all more or less armed, and 
the richer ones followed by mounted servants, who 



VERA CRUZ TO ORIZABA. 33 

are the fainter reproductions of themselves. Their 
fiery little horses seem the perfection of docility, speed, 
endurance, and fidelity. We saw one whose rider 
was hopelessly drunk, and we hardly knew which 
more to admire, the wonderful way the poor sot 
kept his seat, or the gentle forbearance with which 
the nobler brute accommodated himself to his mas- 
ter's condition. 

But amidst all this animation of scene and charac- 
ter, we could not be blind to the sad evidences of 
national instability and decay. The dilapidations are 
from intestine feud ; the neglected churches show the 
lapse of faith, the lounging senoras and the dandy 
caballeros mark the lack of higher aim and ambition, 
which is confirmed by the abject appearance of 
the Indian peasantry ; and altogether, our afternoon's 
walk in Orizaba leaves us with impressions as sad of 
its humanity as they are fascinating of its site and 
scenery. 




MOUNTAIN SCENERY ON THE TABLE-LAND IN MEXICO. 



IV. 

ORIZABA TO THE CITY OF MEXICO. 

IT was on a perfect Spring morning that we reluc- 
tantly left Orizaba for the City of Mexico — a sky 
of glorious intensity, setting off the snowy diadem of 
Orizaba's "breathless peak," the air an elixir of 
health and exhilaration, and every tropic blade and 
leaf shimmering in the early dawn and dew. 

We were ever ascending — by gradually steeper 
grades, till, on the mountain side, it became 212 feet 
to the mile — passing through fertile valleys and by 
sparkling streams, near high-walled haciendas, by 
meek-looking herds of cattle, and quite as meek- 
looking Indian peasants, interspersed with much 
fiercer-looking Mexican rancheros or other pictu- 
resque horsemen. 

Soon began for us the enjoyment of magnificent 
views. We were literally climbing up a mountain 



$6 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

more than 8,000 feet high, by a zigzag way, that we 
would call wonderful for a diligence road in the Alps 
of Europe, but which by rail, becomes a stupendous 
feat of engineering. Hewn out of the mountain side, 
spanning terrible ravines by iron bridges, over which 
you look into an almost sheer thousand feet or more, 
the propulsion by a double-engine locomotive of 
marvellous power, and everything conducted with 
that perfect order and precision, which gives such 
confidence everywhere in English management, this 
railway can certainly be considered one of the won- 
ders of the world ; and the many millions of its cost 
do not seem very much after you have seen the dif- 
ficulties, and the way in which they have been sur- 
mounted. The importance and value of its construc- 
tion is shown in the fact, as stated by an official, that its 
earnings for one month — January of this year — were 
$560,000. 

But we began to speak of the glorious views as we 
ascended, of fertile valleys, cultivated plains, a chang- 
ing, yet ever luxuriant vegetation, here and there a 
town or hamlet with its characteristic variegation of 
color, and conspicuous church-towers and campaniles 



ORIZABA TO THE CITY OF MEXICO. 37 

and all around the beautiful mountain peaks, and all 
and everything rejoicing in the ceaseless summer sun ! 

Then we would creep through narrow defiles, 
with crystal streams brawling happily beside us, and 
the rich mountain flora glistening in the morning 
dew. 

The air was bracingly keen. It was difficult to 
believe we had just left the sultry tropics. It com- 
pleted the revival of Orizaba ; when we reached the 
station at the summit of the pass, called Boca del 
Monte, we were in a condition that boded ill for the 
breakfast larder. 

But be it said, to the credit of whomsoever it con- 
cerns, that we found here, as everywhere at the eat- 
ing-places on this road and its branches, a most 
abundant and satisfactory provision, and at reason- 
able charges — a provision that should shame nearly 
all the American part of the way from New York to 
the Mexican capital. 

Such coffee, we fancy, never entered the wildest 
dreams of a railroad caterer in the United States ; 
and, indeed, throughout Mexico we may say, the 
coffee is a beverage of elysian delight. We felt we 



38 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

never could get enough of it, but were obliged to 
content ourselves with three times a day ; and such 
are its properties, as perhaps also of the climate, that 
it does not seem to affect you in the least beyond sat- 
isfactory stimulation. 

And while speaking of the railway travel in Mexico, 
it would be more than remiss not to allude to the 
perfect courtesy and attention of all connected with 
it. The principal employes of the road are English 
and American, and it seemed a delight to them to do 
anything in their power to facilitate our plans and 
pleasure — thereby furnishing an example, and per- 
haps also affording a warning to railway officials else- 
where, the world over. 

And we cannot forbear, also, in this connection, very 
pardonably we trust, mentioning the case of one, with 
whom at this mountain station we became very pleas- 
antly acquainted, which shows indeed how honest 
industry can make its way anywhere, even in such a 
disordered country as Mexico. 

A man of humble origin, an Irish Roman Catholic, 
but of strong, sturdy character, he came to Mexico 
as a poor laborer, and is now, only a few years 



ORIZABA TO THE CITY OF MEXICO. 39 

later, in an important and confidential position of 
inspection, and in receipt of a salary of several 
thousand- dollars. Truly the world is wide, and 
" there is always room in the front ranks !" 

After leaving Boca del Monte, the exact elevation 
of which is said to be 8,326 feet above the sea, there 
is a slight descent until you come to the level of the 
great plateau or valley of Mexico. The elevation of 
the capital itself is stated as about 7,500 feet. 

The change is very marked from- the bold moun- 
tain region — so rich in vegetation from its greater 
moisture — to the immense and almost monotonous 
plain, looking at this dry season of the year painfully 
parched. 

But its fertility, notwithstanding, seems unbounded, 
producing frequent and vast crops of barley, corn, 
etc., and as you near the City of Mexico, being given 
up almost entirely to the cultivation of the pulque 
plant, the commercial value of which may be esti- 
mated from the fact that it pays in freightage to the 
railway company $1,000 a day. 

There are mysteries of all kinds in this world of 
ours, and not among the least of them is this 



40 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

national Mexican beverage of pulque — to the natives 
what claret is to the Frenchman, beer to the German, 
ale to the Englishman, and we might remark, what 
whiskey sadly is to the American. 

But all these liquids are, to say the least, not 
repulsive in taste ; whereas pulque, to the uninitiated, 
is of all sour things the most disgusting. 

We are ready to admit that it may be, in modera- 
tion, innocuous and even wholesome ; indeed, we 
saw but very few men improperly under its influence, 
and they were only stupidly helpless, never violent. 

We can believe also that, prepared specially for the 
richer classes, it may taste no worse than an ordinary 
condition of " spoiledness " — all this we can readily 
suppose, and we may conclude its consideration with 
the charitable supposition that, being cast, with a 
pig-skin full of it, upon a desert rock in the Pacific, 
might perhaps lead to a more grateful appreciation 
of one of the possibilities of nature ! 

It was most interesting, as we rode along, to 
notice the haciendas and towns near our line of 
travel, or far away upon the mountain slopes. 

The former were like villages in themselves, each 



ORIZABA TO THE CITY OF MEXICO. 41 

containing a church and quite a population of 
servants and retainers. The aristocratic owners 
rarely visit them, and more rarely reside in them. 
Indeed, this would increase the chances of at- 
tack from the ubiquitous brigands, who have an 
uncomfortable way in this republican country of 
carrying off a rich man to their dens and keeping 
him there until a good, fat ransom has been paid ; 
and happy the Dives who returns in full possession of 
all his members I 

These haciendas are all, therefore, well walled and 
fortified, and carry on at times very respectable 
battles and sieges. They are usually situated on 
immense estates, and even under all these adverse 
circumstances, yield great revenues to their owners. 

The larger hamlets and towns are very picturesque 
and attractive, at a distance ; but are said to be, or 
until recently to have been, very nests of robbery 
and crime. 

In fact, at every station of our road, we observed 
a body of volunteer cavalry drawn up in brilliant 
array to protect us from the possible raids of neigh- 
boring banditti. 



42 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

The moralizing reader may be interested to learn 
the sequel, if not the conclusion, to this formidable 
display of friendliness to the government and our- 
selves. 

As we returned over this way a few weeks later, 
all these brave and patriotic protectors had become 
banditti themselves, or had "pronounced," which is 
about the same thing ! 

The tropic day was waning towards its glowing 
close as we neared "the city of the Montezumas." 

As if to welcome us befittingly, great, gorgeous 
banks of clouds, relieved by every delicateness of 
celestial hue, stretched their regal canopy from 
mountain-top to mountain-top again. 

Twin queens of tropic peaks, Popocatepetl and 
Iztacihuatl, flushed a roseate greeting to our stranger 
footsteps! Glorious in elevation, (being some 3,000 
feet higher than the monarch of all Europe's moun- 
tains,) crowned with everlasting snows, a perpetual feast 
of refreshment to tropic eyes, standing as serenely 
proud and pure as when, in the centuries past, filed 
between them the war-worn band of Cortes, and 



ORIZABA TO THE CITY OF MEXICO. 43 

later, passed beneath them the invincible army of 
Scott, and the veteran troops of Maximilian — ma- 
jestic peaks indeed, which the reverent eye can 
never, and would never lose while in this fair and 
fertile valley of the Aztecs ! 

Between them and ourselves, as we approached, lay 
the quiet waters of Tezcuco, set in the peaceful plain, 
and recalling so much of thrilling interest in the 
romantic annals of Anahuac. 

The city itself came upon us almost suddenly, 
protected as it is by nearer hills, and shaded by a 
rich and grateful foliage in parks, fiaseos, and suburbs. 

It was already the dusk of evening, and in a gentle 
" April shower," that we alighted from our railway 
carriages to seek hospitality and rest in this once 
imperial city of an ever mysterious race, a city and 
a race vested with the glamor of a history stranger 
than the strangest romance. 

" Thou art beautiful, 
Queen of the Valley ! thou art beautiful ! 
Thy walls, like silver, sparkle to the sun ; 
Melodious wave thy groves ; thy garden sweets 
Enrich the pleasant air ; upon the lake 
Lie the long shadows of thy towers." 

Sout key's Madoc. 



v. 

THE CITY OF MEXICO. 




VIEW IN THE SQUARE IN THE CITY OF MEXICO. 

THE first impression of the City of Mexico is 
somewhat disappointing to the mind fresh from 
the romantic pages of Prescott, but a more deli- 



THE CITY OF MEXICO. 45 

berate observation will appreciate its unsurpassed 
picturesqueness and advantages of site, and confirm 
the general verdict, that it is the best-built Spanish 
city on the American continent. 

There are people, indeed, who are always disap- 
pointed; who visit Venice, Rome and Naples, and 
grumble over continual disenchantment. Their ideas 
of history seem mostly a compound of popular novels, 
flavored with "the Arabian Nights," and who, 
therefore, feel quite lost in the present sombre silence 
of the Grand Canal, in the dilapidations of the 
Seven-hilled City, and in the. ineffaceable odors of 
what was so recently the Bomba Bourbon capital. 

And thus with Mexico — the city of Montezuma and 
of Cortes, and gilded forever by the genius of one of 
America's greatest historians. It is, perhaps, a dis- 
appointment to find so few vestiges of an empire, 
which appears to have vied in luxury and pomp, in 
all the appliances and arts of living, with any con- 
temporaneous nation of the older world. 

The selfish, ruthless greed of the conquerors seems 
to have swept almost everything away. The very 
worst thing that can be said against the Aztecs — to 



46 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

wit, their human sacrifices — pales beside the subse- 
quent atrocities, both of Church and State, committed 
against these heathen Indians under the name of 
Christianity ! 

We say, therefore, that, considering the generally 
unprincipled and reckless character of these Spanish 
adventurers, the intelligent traveller must be agree- 
ably surprised to see what a city they founded, and 
how wisely in rebuilding they followed some of the 
best ideas of their victim converts. 

The new city was built upon the lines of the old, 
destroyed in the last furious battles of the almost 
exterminating war. The streets are laid out with 
remarkable width and regularity, but they do 
not extend to the dimensions of the Aztec capital. 
Prosperous as is the present city, it is smaller than 
the old by very many thousands of population,* and 
long ancient avenues are seen stretching away from 
it in every direction, which formerly were teeming 
with life and industry. 

Undoubtedly the great charm of the city has been 

* The present population is about 200,000, we believe. 



THE CITY OF MEXICO. 47 

lost in the subsidence of the lake, which once 
extended into the street- canals, and formed the 
gorgeous floating gardens of Aztec wealth and ro- 
mance. At present the lake is a league distant from 
the capital, and, unruffled by any commerce, must 
present a depressing contrast with the day when it 
was alive with Indian crafts of every kind and pur- 
pose. 

The centre of all interest in the capital is, of 
course, its great square, a large part of which is laid 
out as a beautiful park. On one side stands the 
cathedral, one of the largest, if not the largest place 
of worship on this continent, and occupying the' site 
of the great Teocalli of the Aztecs. With regard 
to this Teocalli or temple, we are told " that within 
its enclosure were five hundred dwellings. That its 
hall was built of stone and lime, and ornamented with 
stone serpents. We hear of its four great gates, 
fronting the four cardinal points ; of its stone-paved 
court; great stone stairs, and sanctuaries dedicated 
to the gods of war ; of the square destined for reli- 
gious dances, and the colleges for the priests, and 
seminaries for the priestesses ; of the horrible temple, 



48 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

whose door was an enormous serpent's mouth ; of 
the temple of mirrors and that of shells ; of the 
house set apart for the emperor's prayers ; of the 
consecrated fountains, the birds kept for sacrifice, the 
gardens for the holy flowers, and of the terrible tow- 
ers composed of the skulls of the victims — strange 
mixture of the beautiful and the horrible ! We are 
told that five thousand priests chanted night and day 
in the Great Temple, to the honor and in the service 
of the monstrous idols, who were anointed thrice a 
day with the most precious perfumes ; and that of 
these priests the most austere were clothed in black, 
their long hair dyed with ink, and their bodies anoint- 
ed with the ashes of burnt scorpions and spiders ; 
their chiefs were the sons of kings." 

The present cathedral is an exceedingly impres- 
sive building, and fixed upon one side is the huge, 
mysterious "calendar stone," weighing many tons, 
and transported from its distant quarry by appliances 
which have equally baffled the best antiquarian schol- 
ars of our day. 

The interior presents nothing very remarkable 
beyond its immensity. The choir stands singularly 



THE CITY OF MEXICO. 49 

near the opposite end from the high altar and apse, 
and is connected with the former by a railed pas- 
sage-way, which rails were once, as we are told, 
of solid silver — long since, however, devoted to 
political necessities ! There is some fine woodwork 
in the choir, and there are a few tolerable paintings. 
The sacristy is a noble room, and the marble ar- 
rangements for priestly ablution are remarkably 
handsome and complete. In one of the several visits 
we paid to this cathedral, upon a Lenten Sunday, 
we found a large and devout congregation. 

Another side of the square is taken up with the 
palace, now occupied by the President with as much 
enjoyment, doubtless, as by any of his Imperial pre- 
decessors. It is a long, low, white building, plain even 
to shabbiness, but good enough, we suppose, for a 
bachelor chief!* The hall of ambassadors, or of State 
receptions, is interesting from its life-size portraits of 
Mexican rulers, from the Independence. A remarka- 
ble fact of these men is that several were priests, and 
nearly all educated under Jesuit influence. Undoubt- 

* Lerdo was still President at the time of our visit. 
4 



50 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

edly the most of them were men of lofty patriotism. 
Hidalgo, one of the first to lead the revolted Mexi- 
cans, was a village curate, whose soul was fired by 
the injustice and oppression of Spain. Juarez, one 
of the noblest of them all, was a pure-blooded 
Indian, who, with all his " opportunities," died a 
poor man — one good lesson of little, despised 
Mexico to her great, Pharisaic sister in the North ! 
Lerdo, the present ruler, is an educated, shrewd, 
and somewhat unscrupulous man, resorting, perhaps 
from political necessity, to some means of govern- 
ment, which make the name of republic a farce. 
During our stay in the capital, he recruited his army 
by sending a column of troops to sweep through 
the streets, impressing the poor and respecting the 
rich. The present revolution is partly due, we 
fear, to this arbitrariness, though we must recognize 
that the embers of such disorder seem ever smoul- 
dering in this unhappy land, and can only be 
extinguished by the consistency of a purer faith and 
a wider, truer education. 

To return again to the palace. It was sadly sig- 
nificant to observe upon many magnificent vases 



THE CITY OF MEXICO. 5 1 

and other ornaments the cipher of Maximilian, 
which the republican succession could not remove 
without damage, and which therefore has been very 
sensibly allowed to remain. In the armory of the 
palace we were shocked to see the stand of arms 
with which the poor, well-meaning, but misguided 
monarch was shot ; and our feelings were not 
much relieved by observing in the same hall a 
number of tattered American flags, captured in the 
Mexican war. 

On the opposite side of the square from the 
palace stands one of the most interesting buildings 
remaining of the older city. It is the palace built 
and occupied for a time by Cortes. It is a plain, 
substantial edifice, built, as customary, about a 
large court, and now used as the government 
" Monte Pio " or pawn-broking establishment. 
Here, if your eyes are open and your pocket able, 
you can often pick up objects of interest and value, 
bric-a-brac, in short, " for a song." There is every- 
thing, indeed, from a coach to a ring,. displayed in 
the spacious halls and rooms, and so with little effort 
or expense, you may succeed some day in purchas- 



52 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

ing a bauble of the conquerors. In fact the whole 
country is a mine of interest for the antiquary and 
the scholar, for collectors of all kinds and travellers 
of all aims. 

The interest of sight-seeing is enhanced by the 
fact that you must be your own " Murray " and 
"Baedeker." No slavish absorption in a printed 
page — so often at the expense of the object itself; no 
servile following in the footsteps of an illiterate valet 
de place. There is no such thing as a guide- 
book known in the whole free land Of Mexico ! 
By dint of much search and persuasion we suc- 
ceeded in securing the services of an elderly colored 
man, who had gone to Mexico as a body-servant to 
one of Scott's officers, and who, through much tribu- 
lation, had been able to settle there. He gave us 
cheerfully the benefit of his linguistic and other ad- 
vantages, but I verily believe we taught him much 
more than he had ever begun to suspect about the 
city and environs, before we were through with him. 
And thus we found out that there was a picture 
gallery, with some very poor pictures in it. The 
finest paintings we saw in the country were two little 



THE CITY OF MEXICO. 53 

gems of Murillo, in the private chamber of a resident 
gentleman, whose princely hospitality added one of 
the greatest charms to our visit. We unearthed also 
a museum of Aztec antiquities — pitched and piled 
helter-skelter in two or three mean rooms, with a 
carelessness reflecting great discredit upon the Mex- 
ican Government. Here is the miraculous banner 
once borne before the victorious Cortes; and few 
sweeter faces have I seen than the pictured Virgin 
upon it. Here also is the feather shield of the great 
Montezuma, and near them all sorts of curious old 
Aztec and Spanish weapons, any number of hideous 
Indian idols, quaint jars and vases, primitive musical 
instruments, etc., etc. One of the strangest relics of 
all was a sacrificial yoke of stone, which gives a 
very striking idea of what Aztec heathenism was — an 
impression intensified to the last degree when one 
has seen in the court below the immense sacri- 
ficial stone, round, weirdly sculptured and channelled 
for the victim's blood — when, with knives of flint, the 
heart was dug from the still living body, and cast at 
the idol's feet ! 

It were much to be desired that the Mexi- 



54 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

can people should devote a little of that super- 
fluous energy, which they are ever expending in 
revolutions, and with which they sent such a re- 
spectable display to "the Centennial," toward the 
collection and formation of a worthy museum of 
antiquities. 

There are few other public buildings of particular 
interest in the city. The college is a noble, spacious, 
substantial edifice, and apparently well-appointed. 
The collections of natural history are remarkably 
creditable to the country. There are also some good 
hospitals, of old foundation, one of them- — that of 
"Jesus" — containing a veritable portrait of Cortes, 
and once having held his ashes. The place of 
their final deposit is not known. 

One of the most interesting and attractive resorts 
in the capital is the old market-place, where you may 
see to-day the very people, costumes, habits and 
food, which the Conquistadores found and marvelled 
at more than three centuries ago — a chattering, chaf- 
fering, half-clad crowd of Indians, under booths, 
and with a variety of tropical vegetables and fruits, 
from which you obtain a good idea of the marvellous 



THE CITY OF MEXICO. 55 

capabilities and advantages of the Mexican soil and 
climate. But as regards these fruits, we cannot but 
express oulF preference for a good peach or apple to 
all their luxuriant insipidity. And so it is with 
almost all tilings tropical ; for character and strength 
you must go to the sterner, severer North — and thus 
we have much of the moral of history ! 

A word about the private residences in the city of 
Mexico. Many of them are of palatial proportions, 
and most inviting to the passer-by> with their court- 
yards and galleries and flowers. One of them, near 
our hotel, is most gorgeously tiled over its whole ex- 
terior, and several, indeed, would vie with any 
palaces in Europe. The Iturbide Hotel was the 
palace of that rash and unfortunate monarch, and is 
strikingly grand. The accommodations there, as 
elsewhere, are excellent, the restaurant separate from 
the lodging ; and one can live in the best travelling 
style and comfort for two or three dollars a day in 
gold. With every convenience of living, and every 
fascination of interest, what can the tourist ask more 
or better than a visit to the city of Mexico ? 



VI. 



THE ENVIRONS OF THE CITY OF MEXICO. 




BUILDINGS NEAR THE SQUARE OF THE CATHEDRAL. 

THE environs of the city of Mexico may be said to 
equal, if not to exceed in interest, the city itself. 
There is an almost monotonous regularity about the 
latter, much relieved, however, by the beautiful parks, 
the markets, and such delightful old squares as, e. g., 
that of the Inquisition, where the flavor of the cruel 
yet creamy past becomes absolutely intense ; where 



THE ENVIRONS OF THE CITY OF ME 




one finds all sorts of antique odds and ends\ ex- 
posed for sale under the arcades, and you enter 
the picturesque church and find idolatry to your 
heart's content, (we speak to those zealous souls who 
are so easily made happy by the detection of undue- 
ness in their neighbor's worship !). We must with 
sadness admit that what we witnessed in the dim old 
church of the Inquisition was very gross — grosser 
than anything we remember to have seen in the 
older world. 

Life-size representations of the Saviour, seated, and 
revoltingly wounded, and also as dead from the Cross, 
met one in the nave ; and all about the walls there 
was a profusion of the tawdriest decoration. 

But enough of this, in all pity ! Let us start out 
on this lovely Spring afternoon, (in February !) for 
a drive to Chapultepec, and pray do not be so in- 
tensely patriotic as to think at once of Gen. Scott 
and his yesterday victories over a half-caste and de- 
generate people ; but lift your soul to the romantic 
level of Montezuma and his barbaric glory. 

It is not a long drive — some four or five miles — 
but far enough to make it very unsafe at certain 



58 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

times. The avenues are very fine in every direction 
from the city, well-paved, and planted with trees, the 
newest and handsomest towards Chapultepec being 
called after the unhappy Empress Carlotta, to whom, 
as to her imperial husband, so many of the improve- 
ments in and about the city are due. But, we repeat, 
upon no one of them is it considered safe to drive 
after dark. The very boulevard which on Mardigras 
afternoon was thronged with vehicles, cavaliers, and 
populace, in the gayest and most festive appearance, 
(such a scene of costumes and characteristics as you 
must now go to Mexico to behold) at dusk becomes 
absolutely deserted — and woe to the unlucky and 
belated one ! 

Not long before our visit to the city, a wealthy 
proprietor was caught and carried off, and after a 
persistent search, his friends found him in a secluded 
hovel, buried up to his neck and gagged, while his 
inhuman captors were awaiting the exorbitant ransom. 

Another instance : we were so fortunate as to 
breakfast at the princely villa in the pretty village of 
Tacubaya, near Chapultepec, of one of Mexico's most 
distinguished millionaires. The plate upon the hos- 



THE ENVIRONS OF THE CITY OF MEXICO. 59 

pitable board was worth a fortune ; but when a little 
later we were looking into the dining-room, the 
domestics were hastily packing it up to be taken 
back to the city before night. 

And this genial gentleman himself would scarcely 
dare to pass a night in his own elegant retreat — O, 
the Sister Republic / 

Near the foot of the hill of Chapultepec stands an 
interesting relic of Montezuma's glory, in the shape 
of what is called his " swimming baths," in a most 
inviting spot, with large and deep tanks of cool, clear 
water, and with a surrounding structure recently 
decorated in Pompeian style. It is a favorite resort for 
the city people. A swarthy son of the Aztecs was 
induced, for a consideration, to disport himself in the 
pellucid depths for our amusement. 

But the crowning glory of Chapultepec is found 
in its venerable and majestic trees, which are worthy 
to stand beside the cedars of Lebanon and the 
pines of Mariposa. They are of the cypress fam- 
ily, and many in number. It would be safe to 
say that some of them are forty or fifty feet in 
diameter. Their umbrageous summits tower into 



60 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

the blue summer sky, and it is easy to understand 
how Montezuma was accustomed to seek their rest- 
ful shelter. The grounds wherein they stand sur- 
round extensively the castled hill, and even in their 
comparative neglect are most delightsome. 

The palace of Chapultepec is now undergoing ex- 
tensive repairs, and but little remains of its earlier 
character. Yet it is not without a thrill that one 
stands on foundations reared by a Montezuma, and 
gazes on a prospect that must often have rejoiced his 
eyes, as well as those of his conqueror Cortes, and 
of their strange successors, Maximilian and Juarez. 

The view from the tower is unsurpassed — fair as 
the Vega of Granada, and in the season of moisture, 
doubtless as fascinating as the plain of Damascus. 
Almost at our feet lies the great city, beautifully 
embowered in its perennial green, and surrounded 
with its imperial avenues, its charming villages, and 
gleaming lakes, and towering above all in the glitter- 
ing distance, the twin snow-crowned guardians of 
the majestic valley. 

Another delightful excursion from the city is to 
"the floating gardens.'' We started early, to avoid 



THE ENVIRONS OF THE CITY OF MEXICO. 6 1 

the heat of the day, and took a covered boat in the 
canal, which leads to Lake Chalco. Near to our 
point of departure stands the striking monument to 
the last and one of the worthiest of the Aztec Em- 
perors — Gautemozin — who did all that patriotism and 
valor could to save his already doomed and divided 
country. The canal is only about twenty- five feet 
wide, and very shallow, but is a thoroughfare for 
country produce. It was an animated and pic- 
turesque scene, as we were " poled " along, often 
through crowds of scows and canoes, laden to the 
water's edge with vegetables, firewood, grain, bags 
of sugar, etc., etc., and skilfully propelled by dusky 
Indians, very scantily clad, but cheerful and con- 
tented-looking — as who could fail* to be beneath 
such a genial sun ? 

Soon we were gliding between low, verdant 
banks, bordered principally with willows, and at in- 
tervals passing little Indian villages of wigwams, 
surrounded with pleasant gardens and refreshing 
shade. 

You turn from the main canal into smaller cut- 
tings, just wide enough for your boat, and intersecting 



62 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

in every direction, and find yourself among the so- 
called " floating gardens," Formerly, as we read, 
a great deal of the watery environs of the city were 
thus occupied, and magical must have been the 
effect of these rich and variegated patches of terra 
firma, being moved from place to place, or anchored, 
and swaying gently to the ripples and the breeze. 
First formed by vegetable accumulations, and added 
to by careful art, they soon became, under the 
Aztecs, a leading means of industry and wealth. 
What remains of them to-day is mostly stationary, 
and irrigated by a sort of deep shovel, reminding 
one of the primitive Nile methods. These gardens 
are very brilliant and beautiful, rejoicing this day of 
early March in a profusion of vegetables, fruit and 
flowers. 

About three miles from the capital we came to 
the old village of Sta. Anita, as primitive looking and 
picturesque a place as one could desire to visit. 
The Indian huts take you back to the fellaheen 
hovels of Egypt, though, we are glad to add, not as 
squalidly wretched. The more pretentious buildings 
have the same Spanish character as elsewhere. 



THE ENVIRONS OF THE CITY OF MEXICO. 6$ 

There is the same old Fonda, and the same sleepy, 
dilapidated public square — suggestive of everything 
but progress, and hence so refreshing to eyes fresh 
from "the States." 

Hearing a loud, confused hum of voices, we en- 
tered a building on the square, and found a public 
school, though how they could learn anything under 
such Babel-like circumstances it was difficult to 
imagine. It sounded as if every one were reciting 
something different at once ! 

Just beyond was the village church, and entirely 
characteristic — an old, rude structure, with tawdry 
interior, and an odd-looking wooden representation 
of Cortes on horseback. In the yard we observed 
the singular custom of skulls and bones placed and 
piled above the graves or on the stones — a revolting 
sight, certainly indicating a low state of civilization 
and religion. The considerable number of disused 
and decaying chapels in the neighborhood was like- 
wise a sad evidence of the latter : but what else can 
we expect from a country where the worst elements 
of Spanish ignorance, bigotry, and intolerance have 
taken root and thriven ? 



64 MEXICO AS IT IS.. 

Surely with all our missions to the ends of the 
earth, we might find means and energies for convey- 
ing to this fair and favoring land some portion of 
those spiritual benefits and advantages, for which we 
have just been thanking our fathers' God in the hun- 
dredth year of our national existence. 



VII. 

THE ENVIRONS OF THE CITY OF MEXICO. 

(Continued.) 

"OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE." 

WHAT Loretto is to Italy, Einsideln to Swit- 
zerland, the Atocha to Spain, and Lourdes 
just now to France, is Guadalupe to Mexico — the 
holy city of patriotic pilgrimage ! Human nature 
demands such things, and will have them in some 
shape or other. Nations, like individuals, in times 
of need ask a sign from Heaven, and apotheosize 
their own interpretation. Only woe to the nation 
and woe to the Church, when the former, asking 
bread, receives from the latter a stone ! 

The Spanish conquerors of Mexico were not 

troubled with scruples. The conscience of their 

Church was as elastic then as it is to-day. Let me 

tell you the story of Guadalupe, premising that it is 

S 



66 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

but a change of scene; the main elements have 
been the same in every age since Hilde- 
brand. 

The facts are taken from a sermon of a Cardinal 

If H 

of " the Holy Roman Church." The hero this time 
is — as might be expected — a converted Indian, who 
" on his way to study the Christian doctrine," passed 
by a mountain near to the city of Mexico. To him 
appeared the Blessed Virgin, and told him to seek 
the then Bishop, and to say to him in her name that 
she desired him to come and worship her on that 
very spot. On his return to the mountain the Vir- 
gin reappeared to receive his report. Our friend 
replied that he had not succeeded in obtaining an 
interview with the Bishop. " Return, and tell him 
that I, Mary, the mother of God, have sent you," 
was her answer. 

The second time the Indian was admitted to the 
Episcopal presence, but his Right Reverence very 
naturally declined belief until he received some sat- 
isfactory evidence of the apparition. The patient 
Aztec returns to the holy spot with the message for 
" our Lady," who appears to him the third time. 



THE ENVIRONS OF THE CITY OF MEXICO. 67 

She simply commands him to ascend the mountain, 
and to " cut roses " for her. 

Now Juan Diego knew perfectly well the moun- 
tain was entirely destitute of vegetation ; but with 
exemplary faith he makes the attempt, finds the 
flowers, and brings them happily to the Virgin. She 
throws them in his tilma, (a part of his loose Indian 
dress,) and says, " Return once more to the Bishop, 
and tell him that these flowers are the credentials of 
your mission." The honored native departs, and 
admitted to the Bishop's presence, unfolds his robe 
to present the roses, " when lo ! there appeared on 
the rude garment that blessed picture of the Virgin, 
which now, after three centuries, still exists, without 
having suffered the slightest injury !" The Virgin 
once more appears to our favored friend, the Indian, 
restores his uncle to health, and tells him "the 
image on thy tilma I wish called the Virgin of 
Guadalupe !" 

The image itself passed from the oratory of the 
Bishop to the shrine of the great collegiate Church — 
one of the wealthiest in the world. You will find a 
copy of the picture, as a household god, literally 



68 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

speaking, in every orthodox Mexican home. The 
name of " Maria de Guadalupe " designates a large 
proportion of Mexico's fair daughters. She is, in- 
deed, the Patron Saint of Mexico, in accordance 
with the proud motto beneath, "Non fecit taliter 
omni nationi !" 

So much for the fanciful legend, and now for an 
excursion to the shrine itself. It is only two or three 
miles from the capital, and is reached by frequent 
and rapid horse cars. And what is better, you may, 
by paying a little more, travel in first-class and very 
neat carriages, with plenty of room — a refinement of 
civilization which we unprejudiced Americans have 
not yet reached. 

It is a very pleasant road, one of the old Aztec 
avenues, refreshingly bordered with tropical green ; 
but the village of Guadalupe, which is the terminus, 
is decidedly unprepossessing — very religiously mean 
and dirty ! The church itself is not large, but bar- 
barously rich within. There is the same peculiar 
arrangement of choir and altar as in the Cathedral 
of Mexico. Above the altar, gorgeously encased in 
precious metals and gems, is the poor Indian's pictured 



THE ENVIRONS OF THE CITY OF MEXICO. 69 

tilma — the wonder-working Madonna of Guadalupe. 
The long, large rail- work of choir, altar, aisle, etc., is 
all of silver, as are also candelabra, lecterns, etc., etc.- — 
such an overwhelming effect of wealth as we believe 
to be unique. 

There is nothing in Europe more exquisite than 
the choir wood-carvings. They are in high relief, of 
scenes from the life of our Lord — every one a study 
of delight. There are, of course, a number of pic- 
tures, but few of much merit. Among the worst are 
the native attempts to represent the miraculous sto- 
ry ; and, as is universally the case, the most unfortu- 
nate are the ex voto offerings and efforts of art, and 
yet each one of them, as we must reverently remem- 
ber, representing a world of tragic reality and faith 
ful sentiment. 

Everywhere, indeed, within the consecrated inte- 
rior, is a blaze of gold and silver, rich gems and mar- 
bles, while just without, at the very door, lies the 
usual assortment of crouching, crippled beggary ; and 
to crown the whole, in the porch of this most sacred 
and suggestive shrine, you are invited to purchase a 
lottery ticket ! 



70 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

Passing from the church up a winding street, you 
come shortly to the miraculous well, its waters hav- 
ing been blessed by the Virgin to the cure of all 
manner of fleshly ills. It is protected by a small 
chapel, which is constantly thronged with the faithful. 
We found the water disagreeable to the taste, which 
however may indicate the presence of some effective 
mineral agent. 

From this chapel a steep, stone stairway ascends to 
the summit of the hill, where stands another and 
smaller church, marking the actual site of the miracu- 
lous gift. This temple is devoid of any aesthetic in- 
terest ; but from the pavement in front is a charming 
view of plain and mountain, lake and city, cer- 
tainly none the less refreshing as you turn from the 
sad desecration of faith around you. 

And as we rode •homeward, in the cool, quiet even- 
tide, we could not but reflect again upon the unchang- 
ing and unchangeable aspects of human nature, which 
enwrap the fabled mount of Guadalupe with the same 
fatal gloom overshadowing the seven hills of fallen 
Rome! 



VIII. 

THE ENVIRONS OF THE CITY OF MEXICO. 

(Continued.) 

THE PYRAMIDS OF SAN JUAN TEOTIHUACAN. 
"The City of the gods." 

OF all the excursions in the Mexican valley, that 
to the pyramids of San Juan Teotihuacan is by 
far the most interesting to the student of the past. 
There hangs about them a mystery not even pos- 
sessed by the much greater antiquity of the Egyptian 
monuments. Scholars have examined, excavated, 
studied and searched, but cannot well decide as to 
which of those great tribes and nations, that swept 
down successively from the sterner North to occupy 
these rich table-lands, the origin of these pyramids 
is due ; and yet, if we assign them, as is common, to 
the Toltec race, we cannot go further back than the 
sixth century of our era. It is a mystery almost 



72 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

unparalleled in the annals of history. There they 
stand, and not alone, for similar erections are found 
at Cholula and elsewhere, pyramids reaching even to 
the grandeur of Egypt's, of which we now have en- 
tirely satisfactory explanations — monuments of a 
regal past, which has churlishly left us no sign nor 
story — a mystery like that of the vast mounds and 
massive ruins found in our own far West, which we 
believe the best studies would assign, as a prior 
construction, to the same lost and buried people. 

It is more than idle to doubt their artificial cha- 
racter. They bear every evidence of careful labor 
in form, material, color, arrangement, relics, etc., as 
we shall proceed to show. Indeed we may now say 
that our own unprejudiced examination convinced 
us of the probable truth of the generally received 
theory on the subject, that these pyramids of San 
Juan Teotihuacan, with their many neighboring 
mounds, were erected with immediate reference to 
sacrificial and sepulchral purposes. 

" But you certainly will not visit them in this un- 
settled state of the country — a revolution going on, 
with rebel raids, and even rebel watch-fires pointed 



THE ENVIRONS OF THE CITY OF MEXICO. 73 

out on the distant hill-sides. You must not think of 
it. It is not safe — " etc. etc., were the kind and encour- 
aging remarks of American and Mexican friends alike. 
We were a trifle staggered at first, but an experience 
of similar warnings in southern Italy, Sicily, Spain, 
and the East, had long since convinced us that if you 
want to do or see a thing very much, you had better 
try it, unless you are personally and absolutely sure 
of harm ; and then, if it is only the matter of a few 
dollars' loss, why, put them in your pocket before 
you start, that your brigand brethren may not be in- 
duced to harshness by their disappointment. " Never 
turn back on a mere rumor or report," ought to be a 
maxim graven on the back or at the head of 
every guide-book. We have known friends to lose 
the best things of all foreign travel by what we cannot 
but consider an over-prudence in such matters ; and 
we ourselves have been more than once rewarded by 
the infinite satisfaction, almost equal to that of the 
actual visit, of not having allowed ourselves to be 
stopped by idle, fear-begotten tales. 

So behold us, very early on a fresh Spring morn- 
ing, in the train for San Juan — very early, indeed, for 



74 



MEXICO AS IT IS. 



we were well on our way before " old Sol " conde- 
scended to rise and beam rubicundly on the sleeping 
snows of Popocatepetl. It was glorious to see her, and 
her fair sister Istacyhuatl flush with queenly joy at 
his return, and open a way for his kingly light over 
their trackless slopes to the sweet smiling plains be- 
low. 

San Juan is a few stations from Mexico on the way 
to Vera Cruz. We were there by 7 A. M., and found 
at the little station, what is to be found, indeed, every- 
where, as we believe to have before remarked, an 
excellent cup of coffee, good bread, and a civil station- 
master, not omitting to mention a more than willing 
Indian to guide us. This Indian was not alone, it is 
unnecessary to remark. His friends and neighbors 
were with him on speculative errand. These natives 
were of all ages, and all equally anxious to dispose of 
the many little image relics, which, we incline to think, 
are as yet too abundantly found, and the place, more- 
over, too little visited, to require manufacture. Doubt- 
less when the supply is exhausted, and "Brown, Jones, 
and Robinson" have finally reached here, under the 
fatherly guidance of Mr. Cook, we will see that the 



THE ENVIRONS OF*THE CITY OF MEXICO. 75 

genius of this aspiring age, which has sent scarabei 
to Egypt, " antiques" to Italy, and idols to Africa, 
will not be wanting to the Mexican emergency. 

Where these Indians all lived was at first a mys- 
tery, for which indeed we were prepared on such an 
expedition. Nothing in the way of buildings was 
visible but the station, and an independent looking 
old church near by ; but we soon discovered a col- 
lection of hovels almost concealed by hedges of gigan-' 
tic cacti. We had never seen such immense plants of 
the kind — frequently so large that we could sit in their 
shade, and constituting with the pepper tree the prin- 
cipal vegetation of the fields and mounds. 

The pyramids are several miles distant from the 
hamlet, and to tell the whole warning truth, the way 
is through ploughed fields and under a burning sun. 
But we doubt that the eagerness of the gold or 
diamond seeker is greater, and certainly it is not as 
wholesome, as that with which we explored the 
furrows for pottery relics, and to our frequent success. 
The peasants, in their rude, primitive ploughing, turn 
up quantities of these little heads, and most remark- 
able to relate, we found no two alike. They are 



j6 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

almost all extremely grotesque; sometimes with 
crowns or other emblematic covering. Occasionally 
they possess a neck ; some even rejoice in shoulders, 
and may vie with the conventional cherub ; but few, 
very few indeed, are ever found of a complete figure. 
For some mysterious reason the Aztec artificer could 
only reproduce the master part of the human frame ; 
and when we accept the theory that these countless 
fragilities were given by the Aztec priests connected 
with these sacrificial pyramids, as idols or image 
souvenirs to the myriads of pilgrim worshippers, we 
can perhaps better conjecture about the secret of 
their form. And not only do you pick up these 
curious heads, but also a double-socket piece of 
pottery, apparently intended for purposes of light, 
and greatest rarity of all, we found in a furrow, a 
small rude calendar, also of pottery, and circular, 
with singular hieroglyphics. 

The first pyramid we ascended was that called the 
Pyramid of the Sun. Its base line measures over 
seven hundred feet, and its perpendicular height is 
more than two hundred feet, (we find that measure- 
ments differ.) The ascent is arduous — a broiling sun 



THE ENVIRONS OF THE CITY OF MEXICO. 77 

would suffice to make it so ; but when is added a 
surface of sharp lava stones, one is forcibly reminded 
of Vesuvius-climbing. There are frequent traces of 
a former coating of cement, and very marked signs 
of terracing. The interior, as far as excavated, 
seems to be of layers of stones, tufa, mud, etc. The 
summit area is level, and measures about sixty feet 
by ninety, with an almost perfect orientation. 

Clavigero states that there were formerly temples 
on these pyramids, and within them immense idols 
of stone, covered with gold. The Pyramid of the 
Sun had in its grooved breast a large golden image 
of the planet, which was soon added to the treasures 
of the Spanish conquerors, and the idol was over- 
thrown by the orders of the Bishop — some of the 
huge fragments in the neighborhood probably formed 
a part of it. 

There can be little doubt that these ancient struc- 
tures were models of the later Aztec Teocallis — those 
curious temple mounds, which were the centre of 
worship in all Aztec communities. It is conjectured 
that their ruinous, and now almost natural surface of 
earth and vegetation is due to the effort made by 



7 8 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

the more civilized founders to cover and conceal 
them from future savage invasions. And, at the 
risk of repetition, we must add that their remarkable 
correspondence to similar Egyptian constructions 
adds, if anything, to the piquancy of mystery en- 
veloping them. 

We found the summit strewn with various debris, 
and among them many evidently wrought pieces of 
obsidian, which was the flinty material of the knives 
used in Aztec sacrifice.. 

The view from this elevation is very striking, not 
only of the surrounding country with its grand 
features and peculiar vegetation, but also of the many 
mounds or tumuli, arranged with more or less of 
regularity in groups and squares, and most remark- 
ably in one long avenue extending between the two 
great pyramids. If, from the vast amount of ruinous 
remains by the river-bed and elsewhere near, anti- 
quarian conjecture be true that a mighty city once 
occupied their site, have we not here a wonderful 
sacrificial and sepulchral suburb, like unto those of 
Egypt, Greece, and Rome in their proudest days ? 

What has been said of the Sun Pyramid will apply 



THE ENVIRONS OF THE CITY OF MEXICO. 79 

to the Pyramid of the Moon, except that the latter 
is smaller, and that within it have been discovered 
some passages and chambers, but nothing to indi- 
cate their character. 

The avenue of tumuli between, called by native 
tradition " the path of the dead," is one of the most 
interesting and mysterious features of the whole ar- 
rangement These mounds reach to thirty feet in 
height, and are entirely overgrown with vegetation, 
though in some of them are remains of masonry and 
stucco, and even of color. The avenue is two 
hundred and fifty feet wide, and we found the well- 
preserved remains of terrace steps descending from 
the mounds to the roadway. 

Much of the solid material used in their construc- 
tion, as also of the idol statues, has been destroyed 
or carried away from that same vandal instinct which 
is robbing everywhere the monumental past ; or, at 
the best, transferring to museums that which only 
has its proper value amid the associations of its his- 
tory. But still we found, as before remarked, some 
massive fragments, and especially one immense 
monolithic idol, almost perfect in preservation, stand- 



SO MEXICO AS IT IS. 

ing in a helpless, half- disinterred condition, most 
wonderfully suggestive, may we add, of that poor 
Pagan past, which an aping materialism would seek 
presently to revive. 

Besides these pyramids and mounds there are 
other curious formations, one called the " Citadel," a 
large and regularly embanked square, and also seve- 
ral smaller enclosures, the natural floor of which was 
as level and smooth as though it had been rolled but 
yesterday. It is probable that a huge idol stood on 
a central mound of these sepulchral squares. 

Altogether, the quantity and vastness of these re- 
mains, and the doubt concerning them — their purposes 
and history, makes San Juan Teotihuacan one of the 
most interesting of modern problems, and most 
delightful of excursions. As we returned to the 
capital in the early evening, fatigued indeed from 
the heat and effort, but laden with Indian relics, and 
safe as regards our skins and ducats, we could not 
but feel that here again was much more than enough 
to repay a trip to Mexico. 




TERRA COTTA HEAD. 
Found near the Pyramids of San Jnan Teotihuacan. 



IX. 



THE CITY OF MEXICO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 

(Concluded.) 

ONE of the most interesting excursions in the 
neighborhood of the Capital is to the famous 
old tree of the Noche Trista. The story is, that dur- 
ing the terrible retreat of Cortes from the city, when 
his little veteran army was beset by myriads of out- 
raged and relentless foes, until the very canals ran 
blood, and the broken bridges were replaced by piles 
of dead and dying warriors, the great captain rallied 
and rested his shattered and dispirited forces near this 
enormous tree, making it his own shelter, if we re- 
member rightly the tradition. It is situated about a 
couple of miles from the city, and reached by conve- 
nient horse-cars, on a beautiful and shaded avenue. 
On the way you pass that saddest and most suggest- 
ive spot in every foreign city — the Protestant cem- 



THE ENVIRONS OF THE CITY OF MEXICO. 83 

etery. Nothing could be more retired and delight- 
fully laid out than this last resting-place for wanderers 
in restless Mexico. 

We found the historical tree to be of the same fam- 
ily as the Chapultepec giants, and of almost equal 
proportions, but sadly decayed, and apparently 
much mutilated by fuel and relic hunters ; now pro- 
tected, however, by a substantial railing. 

Could such trees to their actual and patriarchal 
life only add the gift of speech, what tales could they 
not tell ? Who would not more than delight to 
listen to the mystic and majestic eloquence of Le- 
banon's lofty cedars, or better still, to thrill beneath 
the whisper of Gethsemane's sacred olives ? So this 
old tree of the Noche Trista could doubtless reveal 
such a scene of bitter tears and utter agony as hardly 
to be believed, in that bood-stained drama of ruth- 
less greed, called " the Conquest of Mexico." 

And, speaking of military achievements leads us to 
the relation of a brief interview we had with the once 
famous Santa Anna, whose decease we have noticed 
in the public journals since our return home. The 
old man was then very infirm, being in his eightieth 



84 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

year, and requiring support as he stood. He 
received us in his plain dwelling with exceeding cour- 
tesy, as gallant to the ladies of our party as though 
he were welcoming them from the heyday of his 
dictatorial throne. It was not very difficult to read 
in the wreck of that strong countenance and vigor- 
ous frame the secret of a turbulent and vicissitudinous 
career- — a career that might have led to anything 
and everything, perhaps, had it been based on the 
incorruptibility of a Juarez, had it combined with 
native force the magnanimity of a Maximilian. 

There is, indeed, no doubt about the brains of 
Mexico. With such men, as she possesses, at her 
helm, she may hope for any grandeur of the future. 
Faith, honesty, patience are her special need of the 
present ; and may we always do our political part 
and fraternal duty as well, in sending to represent us 
at " our sister republic," such high-toned Christian 
gentlemen as he who now honors us by his diplomatic 
service — it is with pleasure and gratitude we men- 
tion his name — Mr. Foster, of Indiana. 

And so we must say good-bye to the grand old 
city ! We feel we have not half done it justice. 



THE ENVIRONS OF THE CITY OF MEXICO. 85 

There is so much of pleasing and varied interest 
coming up in every street, at every corner. The 
light, the air, the costumes and characteristics form 
a continual feast of luxuriant and stimulating beauty. 
We wished much to visit the silver mines of the in- 
terior, and the fair city of Cuernavaca, once the 
princely home of Cortes. We were even tempted to 
try a passage across the country to the Pacific coast 
— Acapulco or Manzanilla ; but lack of time, 
wretched accommodations for ladies, and last but 
not least, the increasing revolution, made it seem the 
sheerest folly, as was indeed proven by the unsuc- 
cessful attempt of a more daring friend. 

The military condition of the atmosphere became 
really exciting before we left the capital. The streets 
were full of soldiers, and everything looked as if the 
nervousness of our good Mexican friends had attained 
some foundation of fact. We found the guards 
doubled on all the trains, which did not in the least, 
however, diminish our enjoyment of the ride to 
Puebla. We returned by the railway to Vera Cruz 
as far as Apizaco, which is four or five hours from 
the city of Mexico ; and here occurred an incident, 



86 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

which, fortunately, we can relate with entire equa- 
nimity, and which will give the uninitiated a good 
idea of how some matters are managed in a southern 
republic. 

Thanks to the exceeding courtesy of the managing 
director of the road, a special car was placed at our 
disposition, and a special servant was assigned to 
take charge of it. At Apizaco we breakfasted very 
comfortably, and started off on the branch line to 
Puebla. One of our party, taking up his wallet soon 
after, discovered that the lock had been tampered 
with, and a roll of silver dollars extracted. The 
writer of this was not long in examining his own bag, 
and found himself the only other tourist thus dis- 
tinguished. 

What is now to be done ? Of course the silver is 
lost, but there is some satisfaction in complaint, and 
most happily a station where we can telegraph is close 
at hand — only about an hour from Puebla, (mark this 
fact!) Hardly have we stopped before one of our 
friends — ever kindly, cool, and considerate — has. 
jumped out and sent a despatch back to Apizaco. 
We sink back in our seats, sigh again over our 



THE ENVIRONS OF THE CITY OF MEXICO. 8? 

vanished dollars, and only wish they had gone to 
one of the many good works of the Reforming 
Church in the Capital — to the excellent orphanage, 
e. g. y or anywhere rather than to the rascal who got 
them! 

"An hour passed on." We whistle up to the 
platform of Puebla. As we alight a uniformed 
official approaches and courteously begs the gentle- 
man who has telegraphed to step to the office of the 
superintendent. 

Visions of legal difficulties and detentions float 
across our anxious minds. We enter the little 
room, and find another gentlemanly agent, who 
with scarcely any preliminaries, inquires the amount 
we have lost, and to our exact reply hands us back 
all our dear, lost dollars, save one. Surely this is 
" presto magic !" And how could it all so quickly 
have been accomplished ? It seems our dispatch 
had aroused the whole responsible force at Apizaco. 
Mutual conference failed to disclose any suspicion of 
the employes there ; but distrust was expressed re- 
specting the special servant of our car, and orders 
were immediately telegraphed to Puebla to have him 



88 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

arrested on the arrival of our train. This was 
promptly done. The money was found on him, and 
he was lodged in jail before we reached our own 
hotel ! No deposition, no trial, no inconvenience to 
any one but the criminal, who was sent on to the 
army the next day, his punishment being to fight 
the battles of his country ! " Dulce est," etc. 

For promptitude, precision, and entire absence of 
unnecessary formalities, we challenge the nineteenth 
century to produce anything more satisfactory ! 







VIEW IN THE PLAZA IN THE CITY OF PUEBLA. 



X. 

PUEBLA AND CHOLULA. 

THE city of Puebla ranks next to the Capital in 
size and importance, and first in religious esti- 
mation. It lies at about the same elevation as the 
City of Mexico, with picturesque environs, culminat- 
ing on the one side in solitary and sombre Malin- 
che— a name of interest from its having been applied 
by the natives to both Cortes and his fair and faithful 
Indian companion — and on the other side, in our old 
volcanic friends Popocatepetl and Istacyhuatl. You 
will remember that the march of the Spanish con- 
querors, after the occupation and massacre of Cholula, 
was over the lofty ridge connecting the two great 
mountains, whence first dawned upon their wayworn 
vision the bewildering fascinations of the valley of 
Mexico. 

Puebla is well-built, well-preserved, clean, and 



92 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

contains about seventy thousand inhabitants.; but to 
the enlightened American, all these advantages will 
be almost annulled by the fact that it has not one 
daily newspaper ! 

Our hotel was ideal. Fancy a picturesque old 
convent, toned by age into all softness of color and 
shade, built around a court half-filled with old- 
fashioned coaches — fancy ^stepping from your bal- 
conied room out into a glorious cloister, where 
bordered and bloomed tropical flowers and warbled 
an aviary of tropical birds ! 

Fancy this by a Mexican sunlight ; fancy it by a 
Mexican moonlight, and you have the Hotel des 
Diligences in Puebla. And when we add that the 
beds are good and the table fair, you will see 
that a few days in Puebla are not at all to be 
dreaded. 

Though threatened by revolution without and 
within, yet the town seemed quiet and orderly, and 
we soon set forth to become better acquainted with 
it. We found many nice-looking shops, and a num- 
ber of attractive churches. The Cathedral stands on 
one side of the grand square, which is handsomely 



PUEBLA AND CHOLULA. 93 

laid out, and surrounded on the other sides with 
business arcades. 

In considering this Cathedral, we are brought to 
explain our allusion above to the sacred primacy of 
the Pueblan city. It is honored by the name of 
" Puebla de los Angeles," because in the building 
of its great church, these holy co-workers were said 
to have done as much by night as the people did 
by day. Each morning's light displayed the miracu- 
lous additi-on ! 

Though smaller than the Cathedral of Mexico, it 
is more magnificent in almost every respect. It may 
readily be called one of the finest churches in the 
world. It is of basaltic material, supported by mas- 
sive buttresses, and surmounted by lofty towers. 

As is usual in Latin countries, it stands on an 
immense platform, reached by steps at several points, 
and adding much to the grandness of effect. 

Its .interior arrangement is similar to that of the 
Cathedral of Mexico, with its mass of altars and choir 
taking up the middle of the nave, and sadly modify- 
ing the impression. But its gorgeous decorations — 
of gilding everywhere — over altars and baldacchino, 



94 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

columns and walls, its splendid paintings and carvings 
and marbles — all this makes a tout ensemble of be- 
wildering majesty and beauty. The inlaid wood- 
work of the choir cannot be surpassed in all Europe. 
The old missals would honor any shelf of the Vatican, 
and beneath the grand altar is a vault chamber of 
precious marbles and metals for the interment of 
Puebla's bishops. No princely pope could prepare 
for himself a prouder sepulchre. 

The sacristy is a gem of interest. Masterly paint- 
ings and most sumptuous appointments give it a 
regal air ; and again we were struck by the magnifi- 
cence of a marble lavatory. Italy can produce 
nothing to compare with it in our memory. 

But perhaps the unique wonder of all is the chap- 
ter-room — an oblong, lofty apartment, hung with 
tapestries, which were presented to the Cathedral by 
Charles V., having been worked by the ladies of his 
court. The subjects are mostly allegorical, concern- 
ing the newly discovered and conquered Ame- 
ricas. 

There hang also on the walls most interesting por- 
traits of the great Emperor and of the Pueblan 



PUEBLA AND CHOLULA. 95 

Bishops. The old furniture of the room would make 
an antiquary's mouth fairly to water. 

The view from the belfry is superb. The city lies 
mapped out before you, and you read much of the 
history of this most romantic country in the sur- 
rounding beauty and grandeur of configuration. 

Our native guide, however, as well as several 
irrepressible youths, who had followed him, took 
much more interest in pointing out to us the scenes 
of recent revolutionary conflict, an engagement with 
the " Pronunciamentos " having taken place only the 
day before. 

Indeed our evening was mostly spent in discussing 
our own relations to the exciting state of affairs, our 
chances of further sight-seeing, and of escape to the 
sea coast. An ultimatum had been sent to the rail- 
way company by the rebels, with the threat that if 
the amount of money demanded were not forth- 
coming, the road would be cut. It was understood 
that the allotted period had about expired, and that 
the Company had refused the outrageous demand. 
The prospect of a compulsory sojourn in Puebla, 
under the circumstances, was not altogether one of 



96 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

charms ! But we could not give up Cholula, and 
— thanks very much to the kind encouragement and 
assistance of a resident American missionary — we 
were not obliged to do so. Not but that we re- 
ceived warnings enough on all hands, and were con- 
sidered, indeed, as running our heads unnecessarily 
into the lion's mouth. 

We called on a government official, who said he 
would give us an escort, if possible ; but when the 
hour of departure arrived, no soldiers had appeared, 
and so our little party set out, as true tourists should 
ever do, " sans peur et sans reproche." 

Cholula is about three leagues distant from Puebla. 
The road is tolerable, and we found comfortable and 
cheap conveyances. It was a very quiet drive ; the 
engagement of a day or two previous would account 
for the absence of vehicles, but allow for the frequent 
passing of poor, pedestrian peasants — ■ principally 
women — wearily returning from market, and occa- 
sionally an armed and savage-looking horseman, 
whose weapons, however, were probably only for 
self-defence in this Ishmaelitish country. 

The land looked fertile, and was green with 



PUEBLA AND CHOLULA. 97 

promising- crops, especially as we approached 
Cholula, which must have been a garden spot of love- 
liness and wealth. 

The world-famed Pyramid rises conspicuously 
out of the plain, but appearing less definitely marked 
as you approach it. In fact, as compared with that 
of San Juan, it is a disappointment — its pyramidal 
character being almost destroyed by the ravages of 
time. Its edges are very much broken, and its sides 
are entirely overgrown. But it is of much easier 
ascent. Indeed you could drive to the summit over 
a broad road constructed by the Spaniards, and 
leading to the commanding Church, dedicated to 
the Virgin of Remedios. This chapel was a substi- 
tution by the Spaniards for the worship of Quetzal- 
coatl, the great, good and fair god of the Aztecs. 
Having been destroyed, (by fire, we believe,) the 
church has been recently reconstructed, and decorated 
with that cheap tawdriness of taste, which, we regret 
to say, has become characteristic of Roman Church 
interiors. 

The central object of worship upon the grand 
altar is one of those doll- images, in which the 
7 



98 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

invincible conquerors placed such credulous reli- 
ance. 

The original image of the celebrated Virgin de los 
Remedios is said to have been carried to Mexico 
by a soldier of Cortes' army. After the terrible 
Noche Trista, it was concealed, and indeed, altogether 
disappeared for a time; it was reserved for a lucky 
Indian to discover it in a maguey plant on the sum- 
mit of a barren mountain. It was a day of jubilee 
for the Spaniards. A church was built on the spot, 
which soon became a frequented shrine, with attend- 
ant priests, treasurer, camarista, etc., etc. She be- 
came the rich object of endowments, votive offerings, 
legacies, etc., was carried about in time of drought, 
and adored by the passers by, the Viceroy himself 
leading her train. She became the great rival of 
our Indian Lady of Guadalupe. On one occasion of 
victory she was brought to the City of Mexico 
dressed as a general ; on another of defeat, her pass- 
port was signed to leave the country, which sentence 
was not, however, carried out. Well may we pray — 
' God save such a State !' 

From the tower of this church you have a most 



PUEBLA AND CHOLULA. 99 

comprehensive and satisfactory view, as also, we 
should remark, from the extensive summit area on 
which the church is built. The effect of looking 
over the parapet wall upon the artificially precipitous 
sides to the rich level plain below, is very striking. 

The vast site of the ancient city is perfectly evi- 
dent from the marked lines of its regular streets, 
stretching far beyond the now insignificant town into 
its surrounding fields and plantations. From this 
observation we should judge the pyramid or Teocalli 
to have occupied the centre of the old Cholula, which 
was in its glory before the tenth century of our era.- 
But tradition would seem to indicate that this 
pyramid was built even earlier, probably as early as 
the sixth or seventh century — the Olmec period of 
Mexican history. 

Its base — about 1440 feet square, and covering 
forty acres — is thus more than twice as large as 
Cheops. The Mexican pyramid is about two hun- 
dred feet high, which is a little more than the eleva- 
tion of Egyptian Mycerinus. Its summit platform is 
about two hundred feet square. Its sides face the 
cardinal points, and show marked traces of four 



100 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

terraced stories. It seems to have been built of 
adobe, with alternate layers of clay or rubble. 

Humboldt's remarks respecting it are most interest- 
ing. "The construction of the teocalli recalls the 
oldest monuments to which the history of our race, 
reaches." . . . " Imagine a square four 
times greater than that of the Place Vendome in 
Paris, covered with layers of bricks, rising to twice 
the elevation of the Louvre 1" 

As regards the object and use of this great monu- 
ment, it is but a repetition of the wonder and mystery 
of San Juan. No thorough excavation or examina- 
tion has ever been made of the interior. 

A tomb chamber has been found, which contained 
two skeletons, some idols and pottery ; but from the 
relative position and character of this tomb, it can 
hardly be supposed that sepulture was the main, 
original object of the pyramid. 

Within known times there has always been a 
temple of worship upon the summit. Frequently 
destroyed by internecine wars, the magnificent struc- 
ture suffered its final demolition by the invading Span- 
iards — to be replaced by idol worship in another form ! 




A MEXICAN IDOL. 



XL 

CHOLULA — Continued. 

" Mexitli, woman-born, who, from the womb, 
Child of no mortal sire, leap'd terrible, 
The armed avenger of his mother's fame ; 
And he whose will the subject winds obey, 
Quetzalcoatl ; and Tlaloc, water-god, 
And all the hosts of deities, whose power 
Requites with bounty Aztlan's pious zeal, 
Health and rich increase giving to her sons, 
And withering in the war her enemies." 

Southey's Madoc. 

OUR brief study of the pyramid of Cholula 
would lead us very appropriately to consider 
for a moment the subject of Mexican mythology, 
which, essentially linked as it is with Mexican history, 
must form a prime element of interest to the intelli- 
gent traveller. 

All national and tribal histories begin with myths, 
out of whose mistiness tower grand deified forms and 
fancies of vice and virtue. Such are the histories of 



104 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

Egypt, Greece and Rome — and such no less is the 
history of Anahuac. 

There, as elsewhere, may we find to our Christian 
comfort, that the great central object of faith and 
adoration is a good and omnipotent God, whose 
worship — however perverted and corrupted — shows 
distinct traces of earliest and purest revelation. 

It is this very perversion and corruption, which so 
soon makes other and meaner gods, and peoples the 
wilds of nature with creations of fear and favor. 

Such was the terrible Huitzilopochtli — "the Mex- 
ican Mars " — a sanguinary monster, his shrine ever 
reeking with human sacrifices. And such, in lesser 
and varied degree, were many others — even to the 
least of all — " the Penates or household gods," 
whose images — according to a superstitious custom 
far from extinct even in Christian lands — were found 
in every dwelling. 

Indeed, according to Prescott, who, with a histo- 
rian's license, may possibly have exaggerated a little, 
it is more than astonishing to notice the ritual 
resemblances between the heathenism of the Aztecs 
and the religion introduced by the " most Catholic " 



CHOLULA. 105 

conquerors — a resemblance extending even into the 
realm of sacraments. 

It is a more than curious fact, that the symbol of 
the cross was known to the Indians before the ar- 
rival of Cortes. It is stated that a stone cross was 
found in Yucatan, and that a native prophet pro- 
claimed the near arrival of a stranger race, bearing 
the cross as their symbol. 

More wonderful still, in this very city of Cholula 
there is said to have been a temple of the Holy 
Cross in the Toltec era. 

In Oajaca there was a cross regarded by the na- 
tives with the utmost veneration. By order of an 
early Spanish Bishop, it was sumptuously enshrined. 
An account of it, with a portion of its wood, in cross 
shape, was sent to Paul V., who welcomed it on his 
knees, to the hymn, " Vexilla Regis," etc. 

How far all these statements and stories found root 
in the fertile and fashioning faith of the early Mexican 
Church, we will not attempt to determine. It is no 
more unlikely/ however, that the simple, but sublime 
symbol should have been found amid the relics of 
the mysterious Mexican races, than that it should be 



106 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

seen to-day indelibly graven on the stone of Egypt's 
earliest temples. 

But to return to our more immediate theme. By 
far the most interesting personage in Aztec mytho- 
logy was he, whom we have previously mentioned 
— Quetzalcoatl — the grand, mysterious god of the 
earth and air— a character of real grace and glory 
— invested with an ideality and sublimity, to which 
it would be difficult to find an equal in the polluted 
Pantheon of Greece and Rome. 

The traditions of Anahuac speak of an early 
inundation or " Deluge," from which escaped seven 
giants — one of whom v/ent to Cholula and built a 
memorial hill in the shape of a pyramid. The gods 
were wrathful at this presumptuous attempt to reach 
the clouds of their habitation, and hurled fire from 
heaven, which destroyed and dispersed the workmen, 
and the work ceased. It is unnecessary to point the 
resemblance of this tradition to the narrative of 
Genesis. 

This monument was afterwards dedicated to 
Quetzalcoatl. He was the benefactor — the Saturn — 
of the early Mexicans. He was noble of figure, 



CHOLULA. 107 

wise and pure of character. He introduced law 
and order. He promoted industry and art. In his 
reign agriculture flourished, and wealth prevailed. 
" The corn grew so strong that a single ear was a 
load for a man." Luscious fruits perfumed the air 
and satisfied the sense, and countless birds of song 
and beauty charmed the soul. 

It was a time too fair to last. The gods were 
jealous, perhaps. They desired to drive him from 
Tula, where sat his throne. He was offered a 
beverage of immortality, which he readily drank — 
(as who would not ? ) He was then tempted to wan- 
der vaguely away from his kingdom. He came to 
Cholula, where they compelled him to become their 
king, and where he sustained his lofty character of 
wisdom, justice and humanity. 

But the spell was upon him ; his fair, visionary 
kingdom of Tlapalla beckoned him ever on. At last 
he arrives at the borders of the bright, mysterious 
sea. He dismisses his noble and virtuous attendants, 
bidding them to comfort his subject Cholulans, and 
to assure them of his happy and hopeful return. 
And so he disappears from human view — like our 



108 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

own Indian Hiawatha — vanishing into the dimness 
of the undiscovered waters, or better still, shall we not 
reverently say, like unto some Son of Man and God, 
who hath ascended from the race He hath taught and 
redeemed, that He may return one day to comfort 
and compensate all righteousness ! For the Cholulans 
were disconsolate over QuetzalcoatTs departure. 
They made him their tutelary god, and this great 
pyramid we have just visited — crowned with a 
majestic temple — became the principal seat of his 
worship. He was " the god of the air." His sym- 
bol was a feathered serpent, with what particular 
reference is not known. His festivals became the 
great days of Mexico, his priesthood those of 
greatest influence. Their austerities were remark- 
able. " Every fourth or divine year these festivals 
were preceded by a rigid fast of eighty days !" 

And the Mexicans never gave up looking for his 
i 
blessed return. Its hope filled the faith and heart 

of their religion. When Cortes and his invincible 

band of adventurers landed on their coast, and the 

story flew on fleetest wings to the grand capital that 

the fair-haired and mighty strangers had arrived, 



CHOLULA, 109 

speaking an unknown tongue, using unknown weap- 
ons, mounting on unknown beasts, leaving behind 
them in the obedient waters unknown and bird-like 
vessels, it brought a thrill of mingled and mysterious 
emotion to every heart in faithful and favored 
Anahuac — from the rude fisher on Tezcoco to the 
magnificent Montezuma on his throne. 

And it was only when the sordid, grasping, cruel 
prowess of the Spaniards had overturned all hope 
and hospitality before it, and utterly precluded the 
possibility of peacefully winning these far from 
unsusceptible peoples to the gentle and genial 
religion of the Christ, that we see these mixed 
emotions all turned into bitterest — nay, let us call it 
patriotic hate — yet not before they had undermined 
the courage of the Aztec King, and prepared the 
way for the divided councils and desperate decisions, 
which themselves sealed the doom of the mightiest 
heathen empire the American continent has known ! 

Reluctantly leaving this fascinating subject, so 
intimately connected with the grand monument we 
have been studying, let us now descend to see what 



110 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

else of interest the modern Cholula presents to the 
tourist traveller. 

Near the base of the Pyramid we entered a rude 
shop to ask for a drink of water, and were surprised 
to find behind the counter a woman of the people — 
a full-blooded Indian — presenting one of the most 
perfect types of beauty it was ever our plea- 
sure to behold. The natives are usually too toil- 
worn to be fine-looking; the men appear strong, 
patient, and docile, the women seem to fade early 
beneath the exhausting influences of climate and 
care; but here was a young creature of a love- 
liness that any land would be proud to possess, 
and a Raphael would be privileged to paint. The 
curious old Aztec vase, purchased from her graceful 
poverty, and now upon a book-case in my study, re- 
mains a souvenir of admiring homage to God's fairest 
handiwork. 

On one side of the large public square of the 
dilapidated old town stands one of the most remark- 
able churches in the whole country. We have not 
met with any written description of it, but so far as 
we could learn, it was built by Cortes, and would seem 



CHOLULA. Ill 

to have been suggested to him or to his companions 
by the Mosque Cathedral of Cordova. 

The exterior effect is very striking, with its many 
small domes, and heavy blank walls, to which the 
appearance of a fortress is added by medieval bat- 
tlements, as also by the bare surrounding and 
strongly walled enclosure. The church, by rough 
measurement, is about one hundred and fifty feet 
square, with comparatively low ceiling, which is re- 
lieved by forty-nine small domes, decorated with 
such singular devices as eyes, crescents, etc., etc. 
This interior is broken up by nearly fifty short col- 
umns. At one side is a platform chancel, and the 
high altar. There are a few small side-chapels, a 
rare old font and pulpit, and some interesting odds 
and ends of church furniture — the whole forming an 
ecclesiastical relic and picture of the past altogether 
unique, that cannot be matched, we venture to say, 
in all America. 

The sad feature of the scene, was the apparent de- 
sertion and neglect of what, to our thinking, should 
form one of the proudest historical monuments in 
Mexico. 



112 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

Our examination of this church completed what 
was of special interest in Cholula, though the faithful 
Cholulans themselves seemed to be having a good 
time that day, in the observance of one of the in- 
numerable Church Festas — principally expressed to 
our ears by the discharge of artillery, but much more 
detrimental to the peace of mind of sundry faithless 
curs, who at each salvo beat an absurdly precipitate 
retreat. 

As we drove home in the declining day, and saw 
the gorgeous sunset investing majestic Popocatepetl, 
and more gently lingering on the white brow of 
nearer Malinche, and then the crescent moon emerg- 
ing to lend her slender, silver radiance to the eternal 
snows, with a gleam of mystic sentiment far down 
into the ever verdant valleys — we could not but feel 
that our day of tourist explorations had been only 
piquant in its peril and perfect in its satisfaction. 



XII. 

HOW WE TRIED TO GET TO XALAPA. 

EARLY the next morning we bade a fond adieu 
to dear old "Puebla of the Angels," and suc- 
ceeded without mishap in getting past the threat- 
ened junction of Apizaco ; and not long after, were 
gliding down the grand sinuosities and sublime defiles 
of the great mountain railway. I think we enjoyed 
even more the descent, for the reason of greater 
facility in observation. Surely nothing could be 
finer than those views into the infinite tropical dis- 
tance, and all the more striking, indeed, from the 
wonderful transitions, one moment rushing through 
a dark and devious defile, then bursting out into a 
vision of Paradise — sweet, smiling plains, time-hued 
old towers, and everywhere — on city, mount and 
valley, the exquisite play of light and shade, a very 
dream of beauty— to be awakened the next moment 
8 



114 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

by a cautious creeping over some tremendous, thrill- 
ing iron span, making you suddenly to realize that 
after all, the path to that earthly paradise might 
easily become a "facilis descensus Averni !" 

Then came the burning glory of the Tierra Caliente 
— glowing with ever summer heat, and only a little 
relieved as we neared Vera Cruz by one of the 
weirdest thunder storms we had ever witnessed. 
The sheet-lightning fairly lit up the darkly-laden 
heavens and sympathizing earth into a broad and 
burnished vividness that seemed as if it might have 
been from the charging cohorts of Heaven. 

The heat was intense in Vera Cruz. We had 
several days to wait for our steamer. In fact, the 
threatening aspect of political affairs had led us to 
hasten somewhat to the coast, or at least to get 
away from the great central railway, which in all 
revolutions is likely to be the main point of attack. 

We had heard so much of Xalapa — an old city 
about eighty miles in the mountainous interior from 
Vera Cruz — of its internal interest, its peerless 
environs — so fair and fertile, that some thirty or forty 
years ago, it is said, an English traveller arrived 



HOW WE TRIED TO GET TO XALAPA. 115 

there to pass a night, and became so fascinated that 
he never left it afterwards. We had heard so much 
of all this, and the weather was so abominably hot, 
and our old friend, the French landlady, still so vil- 
lanous, that we would not even take a full night's 
rest by the sea, but at a fearfully early hour of the 
following day, were up and off again — and, let it be 
recorded to our credit, all as amiable as ever ! 

We retraced our way by steam for about fifteen 
miles, and then began one of the oddest modes of 
travel it has been our fortune to try. Have you ever 
heard of a mule- way, or rather of a mule railway ? 
The only full opportunity of enjoying one is, we 
believe, between Vera Cruz and Xalapa. The track 
is laid the whole distance, and the ultimate purpose is 
to employ steam throughout ; but meanwhile a sturdy 
team of mules do the business with entire satisfaction — 
i. e. y if you have no objection to passing most of a 
day in one of the loveliest countries God ever made. 

Thanks to the never-failing courtesy of the Rail- 
way Company, a special car — brand-new and open 
all around, thus affording a perfect view of every- 
thing — was placed at our disposal ; the manager of 



Il6 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

the road — a young and genial American — was de- 
tailed to escort us, and soon we were rolling smoothly 
along behind six mules at full run, which were 
changed at intervals ; and so we had old-fashioned 
post-chaising, with all the modern improvements. 

Words would fail to tell the glory of nature through 
which we were passing. We had already seen much 
of it, but at a distance, whirled through it by impa- 
tient steam ; now we were brought face to face — aye, 
hand to hand with Madra Natura in all her wealth 
and luxury of grace ; and to say that we fell over head 
and ears in love with her would be but mild expres- 
sion for our abiding emotions. We were passing 
through the Eden of her loveliness, and never was 
earthly charm more sweet than that of her caressing 
embraces. It was the true Tierra Caliente — the land 
of tropic triumph, burning beauty, passionate exhilar- 
ations ! — a land which, again we say it, cannot be 
described even by poet's pen, because it shows the 
very hand and heart of Creative Love — it is His age- 
less Revelation ! 

From the commonest growth at our feet to the 
arching glory far above — Heaven's brightest carpet- 



HOW WE TRIED TO GET TO XALAPA. 1 17 

ing all around, and springing from it in every form 
and hue the unstinted and unstinting life of nature, 
great, gorgeous blossoms, rankly richest foliage, 
lusciously heavy fruits — a bewildering mixture of all 
vegetable mystery and magical exuberance ; for 
names were nothing — our intelligent and indefatigable 
guide could not begin to keep pace with our 
questioning, and it hardly mattered — the strangely 
aromatic terms passed dreamily from ear to ear, and 
were soon lost again in the scented distance. Only 
did we well remember and gladly recognize our most 
typical friend the palm — no longer the stunted 
apology of poor Atlantic or Italian coast, but a 
creature of plentiful and proudest prime. 

And everywhere within, throughout this world of 
glory, moved an equal wealth and wonder of anima- 
tion — birds of paradisaical hue and song, glittering 
insects and great palpitating lizards, large as your 
arm, basking by the wayside in the moist intensity 
of the tropic day — will you wonder, considerate 
reader, at our disinclination to attempt description 
of such a scene and experience, and will you blame 
us for daring to describe thus much ? 



Il8 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

Contrary to all our preconceived ideas, our 
manager-friend informed us that this luxuriant and 
often swampy region was not an unhealthy one ; so, 
at least, he, in his several years residence and frequent 
hunting throughout it, had found. Of course it is not 
unwholesome to the natives, and we fancy almost 
any one could live there, in temperance, and a will- 
ingness to have the acclimating fever. 

The country is full of choice game, and very fer- 
tile. Our friend told us of one immense hacienda, 
many leagues in extent, and stocked with many 
thousand brood mares. We passed near to a palatial 
mansion which had once been the residence of Santa 
Anna in his days of wealth and power, now much 
neglected, but still fascinating in its site by the beau- 
tiful Antigua river, and amid its tropical groves and 
gardens. 

The villages through which our journey lay were 
few in number and insignificant in appearance, evi- 
dently inhabited by a poor, peasant, aboriginal popu- 
lation. We arrived at the half-way station (in time, 
not in distance, for the ascent begins shortly after 
leaving here) before noon, and found it to consist 



HOW WE TRIED TO GET TO XALAPA. II9 

of two or three houses, stables, etc., dignified by the 
poetical name of Rinconaro. The temperature was 
oppressive ; we were already fatigued and half-fam- 
ished, and expecting little in the way of refreshment, 
imagine our surprise and delight at finding a clean, 
cool room, spotless table- service and a delicious re- 
past, under the cordial superintendence of a stray 
Frenchman, who had worthily brought the genius of 
his nation to bear upon the perfect profusion of the land. 

So far all was well — all was more than well — our 
morning dream had been nothing but delight, too 
smooth, you will say, to last in such a land and in 
such times. 

We had fortunately finished our repast, when our 
kind manager-friend entered the room, his face 
clouded with anxiety, and holding a mysterious dis- 
patch in his hand. We should first mention, how- 
ever, that he had before remarked upon the 
strangeness of the down train from Xalapa not 
having arrived — a most unusual occurrence, he said ; 
he had hardly ever known it to happen in his years 
of managing experience. We could not proceed 
until its arrival, and so he had telegraphed on to 



120 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

know the cause of detention. The reply came 
couched in such ambiguous terms, that he feared 
mischief was brewing somewhere. We were told by 
the dispatch that a bridge was down near Xalapa, 
but to proceed at once without apprehension, etc., etc. 

" Now," said Mr. T., " in my opinion this is a false 
statement. That bridge is not down ; or if down, it 
never became so by fair means. Something is 
wrong, and with the responsibility of your safety 
upon my shoulders, I can only say, I fear it is the 
Revolution. I will proceed with you, if you like, 
but you must decide for yourselves ; a car is at your 
disposal, if you conclude to return to Vera Cruz." 

Here was a dilemma for a peaceable party of 
travellers, inoffensively longing for another look at 
the Mexican hills, another day or two among their 
contrasting charms. Shall we go on, with the risk 
of robbery^anct~~outr-age, such as are common to 
Mexican life and travel, where one of the worst 
possibilities is the being reduced to a primeval 
attire — or rather a primeval absence of the same — 
under far from primeval conditions, or shall we act 
according to the better part of valor ? 



HOW WE TRIED TO GET TO XALAPA. 121 

Under the circumstances, and finding further dis- 
patches only deepened the mystery and increased 
the apprehensions of our experienced friend, who 
himself, however, after concealing his trusts, deemed 
it his duty to continue his route — with much regret 
we--decided to^return to our point of morning 
departure. 

And now succeeded the anxiety of safe return. 
There seemed little doubt that the Revolution had 
taken possession of Xalapa, was anxious to get 
possession of the mails, etc., on our train, and might 
telegraph back to some ruffianly crew to stop and 
secure us before we could reach Vera Cruz again. 

It was an exciting drive. Our native driver was 
himself aroused, and had evidently increased his 
emotions by internal application. His whip and 
voice alike lashed through the sultry tropic air, and 
kept our half- wild beasts at a steaming run. A num- 
ber of peasant people had entered our car, and no 
one inspired us with much confidence but a poor 
foreigner, one of the employes of the line, who 
seemed equally anxious to reach a place of safety — 
so sad had been his experience in previous political 



12 2 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

upheavals of this unhappy land. Those of our party 
who were armed kept one hand ready, and all 
eyes that appreciated our peril were scanning the 
wayside swamps and forests, expecting every 
minute to see emerging from their covert a band of 
operatic-looking individuals, who would relieve us 
of all further trouble in present worldly posses- 
sions. 

But, thank God ! our fears were needless, though 
it was not till we reached Vera Cruz that night, and 
indeed not fully till a day or two later, that we learned 
of our real escape from, at the very least, a consider- 
able annoyance. It was all true to the letter — accord- 
ing to the apprehensions of our sagacious friend. The 
Revolutionists had taken possession that morning of 
Xalapa, after a slight struggle ; had sought to mislead 
us by false dispatches, but probably had not time to 
arrange for our capture — and thus we did not get to 
Xalapa. But do not be discouraged, friend reader ; 
if you can go no farther, you will be more than re- 
paid by every step of the " Caliente " way to refresh- 
ing Rinconaro. 

Our Mexican notes are about finished; our few 



HOW WE TRIED TO GET TO XALAPA. 1 23 

more days in the country are days of waiting — 
waiting for the inevitable " Norther " to subside, and 
allow our steamer to depart. This waiting was 
not altogether uncomfortable, though disagreeable, 
from the bad drainage and frequent sand-storms of 
the city. Let no one tarry in its precincts longer 
than absolutely necessary ; let him rather remain on 
the steamer, if possible ; for the fever- fiend, we fancy, 
is never entirely idle in Vera Cruz. 

At last we were enabled to steam away, and after 
the same wearisome stoppages at Mexican ports, set 
our prow and faces northward, only to encounter 
another terrible " Norther," which struck us one night 
like a broadside of bombs, and kept the sea, and our 
poor, but staunch little boat in an agony for twelve 
hours or more — one of those experiences from which 
you emerge with heart of subdued gratitude and 
never-ceasing wonder at the fascinated choice of 
those brother-beings, whose life is to ' go down to the 
sea in ships and to do business in great waters.' 

If ever there was a motley crowd, of every social hue, 
from verge to verge, it was our passenger-list. Our 
circumscribed deck was a real stage, and on it at all 



124 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

hours paced and paraded the players. Not sorry 
were some of us to set foot again upon the soil and 
scope of larger acting and action, where, to say the 
least, there is no need of constant uncongenial jost- 
ling. 




MANUEL AGUAS. 



XIII. 

THE CHURCH IN MEXICO. 



Far away 



Tuhidthiton led forth the Aztecas, 

To spread in other lands Mexitlis' name, 

And rear a mightier empire, and set up 

Again their foul idolatry ; till Heaven, 

Making blind zeal and bloody avarice 

Its ministers of vengeance, sent among them 

The heroic Spaniards' unrelenting sword." 

Southey's Madoc. 

THE Christian traveller in Mexico will very 
naturally wish to know something about the 
religious life of the country, convinced as he will 
very soon become that its only hope lies in the 
supremacy of a purer faith and practice. 

He observes so much of ignorance and degrada- 
tion in the dominant Church of Rome, the sad 
inheritance of a semi-barbarous conquest, which in- 
deed was only just gilded by a pretense of conversion 
to the creed of a Spanish Philip and a Roman Leo. 



128 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

The faith of "the Conquerors" was little better 
than a fetichism, a matter of miraculous madonnas 
and superstitious observances, with very little of 
Christianity's grace and truth visible in walk and 
conversation. Conversion consisted in persuasion or 
compulsion to Holy Baptism, often administered to 
a multitude of ignorant savages at a time. With 
the exception of a few great and godly men, like 
Las Casas, there have been very few of the Spanish 
Church either capable or willing to instruct and 
elevate the long servile and degraded masses of the 
people ; and yet, we believe there is no aboriginal 
race more susceptible and prepared to receive a pure 
and undefiled Christianity. 

The Church in Mexico received and inherited 
much of the worst elements of what is perhaps the 
worst, the least spiritual type of Romanism in 
Europe. There has never been anything more 
darkly complete than the crushing out of the Refor- 
mation in Spain. Its permission by a just and 
merciful God is one of the mysteries of history. The 
names of Ponce de la Fuente, Don Carlos de Seso, 
and Marina Guevera come to us from the mar- 



THE CHURCH IN MEXICO. 1 29 

tyr past with a fragrance of sanctity as excel- 
lent, as is the memory of Torquemada and Valdes 
synonymous with all that is cruelly infamous. 
The great crime in inquisitorial eyes was the denial 
of " Roman" to the Church's "Holy, Catholic" 
name. 

A nation, a Church can give no more, no better 
than she has and is, and thus we have the clue to 
Mexico's misery. The Church of Mexico fattened 
upon the land. She became wealthy and overween- 
ing — like her great earthly head and centre, the 
enemy to all progress and enlightenment. The 
State, in self-defence, disestablished her, but perhaps 
only making her more subtly dangerous. The crisis 
in the religious history of Mexico seems to have 
occurred during the troublous times of the French 
attempt to seat the unfortunate Maximilian upon an 
imperial throne. 

There must have been previously a movement of 
the Spirit of God in the hearts of the Mexican people, 
but the introduction of the Holy Scriptures and other 
inciting influences in those all upheaving days, seems 
to have first determined a renewing manifestation in 
9 



130 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

the attempt of a priest named Francisco Aguilar to 
establish a reformed congregation. His ideas were 
necessarily somewhat crude and vague, but still 
strongly shaped in the direction of truly Catholic and 
Apostolic faith and service. 

To strip the Church of her manifold accretions, to 
give her a worship understood of the people, and to 
afford her individual members the grace of pure 
Sacraments and the comfort of Holy Scripture, seems 
to have been the aim of this really remarkable man, 
for whom, however, as might be expected, the burden 
soon became too heavy ; and when in two short years, 
he laid it down, let us trust, to his own eternal rest, it 
had already become a cross, cruelly defined, and 
awaiting the next hand of faith that should be strong 
enough to take it up. 

His little flock must not be left to perish, but who 
shall be found competent to guide them, by God's 
grace, amid so many perils ? No one had yet ap- 
peared by Aguilar's side. His battle had been fought 
single-handed. There is something in the wonderful 
discipline, or rather terrorism of Rome, which has 
hitherto been the greatest obstacle to anything like 



THE CHURCH IN MEXICO. 131 

national Church reform, and which leaves to-day the 
Old Catholic movement in Europe as wonderfully 
strong in quality as it is woefully weak in quantity. 

Providentially there was at this time in New 
York a presbyter of the American Church, min- 
istering to a Spanish congregation, to whom 
the appeal was made in behalf of this little, 
distant flock, and who felt it was a call of God too 
plain and potent to be disregarded. Taking his life 
in his hand, Dr. Henry Chauncey Riley, went in 
1869 to Mexico, and set himself zealously to carry 
on the work of organizing a Reformed Church in 
that " priest-ridden " country. 

His labors were blessed. He succeeded in obtain- 
ing possession of one of the principal churches in the 
Capital, and soon the influence of the pure cause 
which he represented began to make itself everywhere 
felt. Its greatest personal triumph was yet to come. 
The story of Manuel Aguas' conversion from Roman- 
ism to true Catholicism, forms one of the romantic 
and immortal episodes, which illumine the pages 
of Church History. He had been the champion of 
Mexican Ultramontanism, against what he had deemed 



132 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

a mere heretical, Protestant aggression ; but a candid 
examination of the adversary's position led to his en- 
lightenment, and the morning of the great field-day, 
on which he was to demolish, before the assembled 
elite of the Capital, the " pestilent " enemy's assump- 
tions, found him instead, like his prototype, Saul of 
Tarsus, a most zealous preacher of the pure and 
undefiled Gospel and Church of Jesus Christ. 

And in this new, all modifying attitude, he never 
wavered. He had counted the cost, and never for 
one moment relinquished his hold of the terrible plow, 
whose "share" was already — for him and for his 
few faithful adherents — being re-beaten into a sword 
of social and every martyrdom. 

He became, of course, an invaluable reinforcement 
to the new Church, and was very soon elected its 
Bishop, and during the brief remainder of his life he 
was indefatigable in preaching, writing, teaching in 
every way, the truths of his utter conviction. He 
died, like his predecessor, Aguilar, a martyr to this 
all-consuming zeal; but happier than Aguilar, in 
leaving behind him a small but competent band of 
fellow-workers, who, following in his self-denying 



THE CHURCH IN MEXICO. 1 33 

footsteps, have been blessed in the present established 
and most promising condition of the Reformed Church 
in Mexico. 

The organized Synod of this Church sent a peti- 
tion to the House of Bishops of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church in the United States, in 1874, 
praying for Episcopal consecration, and asserting 
their readiness to give all proper guarantees of Catho- 
licity on their part. This petition was answered by 
the appointment of a Commission of seven Bishops, 
one of whom, Bishop Lee, of Delaware, went to 
Mexico, in 1875, and ordained several of the native 
candidates to the priesthood and diaconate, besides 
confirming a large number. 

The Commission is still in sympathetic and 
systematizing relations with the Mexican Church, 
and there can be little doubt that before very long 
there will exist in Mexico an independent national 
Church, in full communion with the Reformed 
Catholic Church throughout the world. 

In concluding this brief sketch of the religious 
elements in the Mexican question, almost as im- 
portant and vexed a subject to the United States as 



134 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

is the Ultramontane problem to Europe, we feel we 
can do no better in pertinent, practical information and 
appeal, than to repeat some portions of addresses, 
delivered since our return home in several principal 
cities, in aid of our struggling sister Church. 



More than two thousand miles away — beyond our 
own most Southern lands and seas — there lies a 
country, whose very name brings to the mind visions 
of peerless splendor and romance — a country than 
which Italia, with all her gift of beauty, hath . no fairer 
bloom, and Greece, with all her song, no prouder 
story — a country like indeed unto that of which 
the prophet speaks, " a land of wheat and barley and 
vines and fig-trees and pomegranates' — a land of oil 
olive and honey — a land wherein thou shalt eat 
bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything 
in it" 

Or — to speak with more particularity — it is a 
country of every capability a bountiful God can give, 
its borders laved by tropic seas, its lower regions 
laughing in perpetual summer, and then by grand 



THE CHURCH IN MEXICO. 1 35 

degrees of beauty and fertility ascending into moun- 
tain summits, crowned with the glory of perpetual 
snows. 

Within this land so gifted, lie many towns, each 
one of which has been the seat of independent power, 
as well as of marvellous advance in all the arts ot 
life, until within the more recent centuries compelled 
to own the sway of mighty Anahuac, and somewhat 
later to exchange the feathery diadem of Montezuma, 
for the Vice- regal crown of Cortes. This was a land, 
in short, of which all Europe's chivalry was dreaming, 
and out of which that chivalry — with its blade of 
many stains — carve'd a golden empire ! 

There is no need for us to inquire how much the 
Aztecs lost, or how little they gained by the historic 
exchange. We must set on the one side the bloody 
sacrifices of heathenism, and on the other a ruthless 
slavery and a cruel Inquisition. We may compare 
the Mexico of to-day, forever tossing on a political 
volcano, with the rude and rival powers of Cholula, 
Tlascala and Tezcuco in the days of old. 

But for this we may indeed be thankful, that 
whether in pretence or in truth, Christ was preached 



136 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

by the Castilian conquerors of Mexico, and through 
the heavy haze of their errors and shortcomings upon 
the chronicling past, we may at least be thankful for 
the bright, immortal name of a Las Casas ! 

Within these latter days the light of all- reforming 
truth has dawned on Mexico. Out of religious despot- 
ism and social anarchy has come forth the good that 
the GOD of history and the Christ of liberty alone 
can bring ! 

The universal upheaval of the age — call it progress 
or reaction, as we will — has brought to our so-called 
" sister Republic " the same results, which meet the 
observant traveller's eye in the awakening countries 
of the older world — the men of the higher, educated 
classes, largely infidel, the women generally bigoted, 
the middle and lower classes somewhat indifferent, 
but still in the main attached to the Church from 
various reasons of fear or favor, while doubtless, very 
many even among them all have a true and lively 
faith in the eternal verities of Salvation, which even a 
papal curia cannot altogether conceal ! 

From these lower classes, then, to whom indeed it 
may be said of every land, that life brings only and 



THE CHURCH IN MEXICO. 1 37 

ever the sternest and saddest realities — from and 

among the lower classes of the Mexican people has 

the Reformation sprung and spread. 

Dissatisfied with husks, they cried for bread, and 

finding no response from the shepherds set over 

them, they appealed to GOD Himself — they have 

turned to us, their former " heretic " brethren and 

neighbors ; and thus it is, Christian friends and readers, 

that we have the Reforming Church of Christ in 

Mexico asking for our sympathy and aid to-day. 

-lid 

I went to Mexico as a tourist, with rather indefinite 
ideas as to what was going on there in the way 
of Church revival, but with the hearty intention of 
finding out all I could about it in the short time of 
my visit. 

What did I find, then, on arriving in the City of 
Mexico, and inquiring' for the native reforming 
church ? 

I found a grand cathedral, situated in the most 
valuable and attractive part of the city, the very 
church in which the dead conqueror Cortes was laid 
in state, its situation a means of influence in itself, 



138 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

with an inviting entrance between beds of blooming 
flowers and tropic shrubbery, and an interior worthy 
of any of our own metropolitan congregations. In 
fine, we may say that the possession of this old 
historic church of San Francisco alone would give 
character to any movement. 

Notwithstanding the cruel conscription going on 
at the time of our visit, which kept many of the peo- 
ple at home, we found a congregation fairly filling the 
church, and worshipping with an attention and ardor 
most beautiful and edifying to behold. They were 
the poor and the lowly of earth — those to whom and 
among whom the Redeemer first came, who first 
indeed constituted the rank and file of the Christian 
Church — and those, whom it is one of the saddest 
reflections of our Christian day, that the Church of 
Christ is only half able to retain. But to these 
devoted hearts it all seemed a tremendous and 
glorious reality. Their singing — the use of our own 
sweet hymns, such as " Jerusalem the Golden," and 
" Sun of my Soul," translated into most mellifluous 
Castilian — was one of the most impressive and touch- 
ing features of worship I have ever met with in any land. 



THE CHURCH IN MEXICO. 1 39 

And now a word as to their clergy, with 
several of whom we had the great pleasure of be- 
coming intimately acquainted. My heart glows as it 
recalls them one by one ! Simple-hearted, lowly- 
minded, fervent- spirited — their demeanor and charac- 
ter was full of Christian sweetness and gentleness and 
charity. Their Bishop elect is the type of what is 
needed in that peculiar and exacting field — a pure- 
blooded Indian ; this would seem an indispensable 
qualification of ministration to the . millions of native 
peasant population, in whom indeed the hope of the 
country largely lies — a man whose every look 
and word of humility and faith and zeal mark him as 
a worthy successor to the poor, yet princely apostles 
of Galilee. 

And his small band of clergy appeared to 
be generally of the same tone ; one of them has been 
himself a Bishop-elect of the Church of Rome ; another 
has served as an army officer, which should in itself 
suffice to answer for his honor, sincerity and loyalty, 
confirmed as it is by his venerable appearance and 
frank devotion. Others of them are young men, 
almost too young, it might seem, for such thrilling 



140 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

responsibilities, but apparently with an enthusiasm 
tempered by discretion and discipline ; one or two 
especially struck me as men for whom, under God's 
provident grace, the most glowing expectations could 
be formed. 

Going among these stranger brethren, with no claim 
indeed but as a presbyter of the American Church, I 
could not but humbly and happily feel that my Church 
was honored in me ; and when they fell upon my neck 
at parting, your Christian hearts will readily under- 
stand how my own, too full for utterance, could not 
but most reverently though most distantly revert 
to that pathetic scene in early Ephesus, when the 
great Apostle, parting from the brethren of his love, 
prayed and wept with them all — " Sorrowing most 
of all for the words which he spake, that they should 
see his face no more !" 

And what more shall we say of them or of their 
holy work ? Shall we speak of their schools, which 
still small, on account of adverse social influences, 
yet proclaim the right principles and intentions of 
education and training ? Shall we tell of the orphan- 
age, where in a distant and secluded part of the city, 



THE CHURCH IN MEXICO. 141 

alone amid inimical surroundings, a devoted Christian 
woman is cherishing and elevating a small band of 
orphans — poor little social waifs, with no one to care 
for them until this Church in her Master's spirit took 
them by the hand, clothed their bodies and warmed 
their hearts, and is leading them gently into and 
along the way of life ? . 

Of course funds are vitally needed for the 
relief of this Church. The clergy are poor men, 
who have sacrificed what little they had of tem- 
poral means and vocation, as well as of social 
influence and interest, in the cause of the Master 
Christ. Brought up as we are, with everything to 
favor pure and undefiled Christianity, it is almost im- 
possible here to realize how in that benighted land a 
profession of Protestant or truly Catholic faith amounts 
to a complete ostracism — makes a social pariah of a 
man. Besides, their congregations, to their glory, as 
was said above, as also to their claim upon our 
Christian hearts, are the poor and lowly of earth, who, 
if they can keep bread in their children's mouths, 
the wolf from their own door, are doing well ; 
and who can, therefore, do little for the support 



142 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

of those whom God has set spiritually over 
them. 

But what we wished particularly to remark as a 
drawback and qualification, which should enlist our 
earnest sympathy and efforts, is the general ignorance 
and need of instruction. Belonging, as we do, to a 
Church which bases much of its claim upon hu- 
man faith in the Catholicity of its Creeds, and 
the decency and order of its worship, and committed 
as we are to our young Mexican sister, as by the 
grace of God her guide and guardian in the truth, it 
behoves us most essentially to see that she be tho- 
roughly instructed in the whole "truth as it is in 
Jesus," and in His " One, Holy, Catholic and 
Apostolic Church ;" that when, by the blessing of 
God, she be arrived at maturity and independence of 
estate, we be not ashamed to point to her, and say, 
" Behold the sister beloved and fair, whom God gave 
into our fraternal hands, who is now the delight of 
her Divine Spouse, and a joy and comfort to the 
hearts of men !" 

Wherefore, let our first efforts be directed towards 
the establishment of theological, of seminary instruc- 



THE CHURCH IN MEXICO. 143 

tion and training. We must send them translated 
and truly Catholic publications, those standard de- 
fenses of our Reformed faith, than which nothing can 
form a better and brighter weapon for their present 
and future need, but only such weapons of course as 
could be beaten into ploughshares at any m&ment, 
knowing, as we must, that the only sword which can 
carve its way unto the throne of the God of Love, 
is that forged by His Holy Spirit 

And while speaking of this essential element of 
love and peace in the Christian Church, we cannot 
forbear allusion to the humble and holy spirit of our 
Mexican brethren, not only towards those who with 
a sadly mistaken zeal have seen fit to persecute them, 
even " for righteousness' sake," as also towards those 
of their brethren of much nearer kinship, who, we 
deeply grieve to think, have, some of them, lost sight 
of the Apostolic spirit, and would apparently resolve 
the Apostolic work into a rival contest for spiritual 
supremacy. God give them soon a better mind ! 
Surely a labor of Christian life and love such as we 
are fraternally interested in, which first appealed for 
our own immediate sympathy and succor, should be 



144 MEXICO AS IT IS. 

very far from suffering any let or hindrance from 
brethren of the same Christian home and hope, 
should never forcibly be made the means of present- 
ing a divided front to the wiles and warfare of the 
enemy of mankind. 

We have spoken of the pressing demands of this 
great mission work — a work so vast that in sur- 
veying its glorious possibilities, if not probabilities, 
the Christian eye must pass through central and 
southern and tropic zones, till only arrested by the 
silent seas that lave the furthest shores of millions 
lying fast bound in visible darkness — following a 
light once grudgingly bestowed — a light of Heaven 
indeed, but long hidden in such dim sanctuaries of 
earth that these same semi-heathen millions have 
only learned to groan in its glimmer ! 

Of such an infinite work we have sought thus 
imperfectly to speak, believing that, under God, this 
Church is called to one of the grandest tasks and 
responsibilities ever committed to any Communion. 
And we beg you to note this singular, we may, per- 
haps, call it unique fact in the history of Christian 
effort. Every cent raised, every dollar given, 



THE CHURCH IN MEXICO. 145 

goes directly to the Mexican Church — goes straight 
to native need, to native workers in the vineyard of 
the Lord. We are not supporting foreign laborers, 
who with all their faith and zeal, must still and ever 
find an almost impassable gulf of national and linguis- 
tic genius between them and their infinite object. 
All thanks, we may add, to the signal devo- 
tion of one, who in these self-seeking days, has 
done so much to remind us of Apostolic example ; 
who laying his all at the Master's feet, has gone forth 
to labor in a land of need, for which, indeed, by 
Providence of birth, and grace of gift, he seems to 
have been specially designated — need I say that I 
am most admiringly and affectionately alluding to 
my Right Reverend Brother elect, destined, I be- 
lieve, to be known in reverent history as, under the 
renewing and reviving grace of Christ, one of the 
founders and fathers of the Reformed Church of 
Christ in Mexico. 



OT 



APPENDIX, 



SKETCH OF RECENT MEXICAN HISTORY. 

The following brief summary of recent Mexican history- 
may be of interest to the reader : 

In 1 82 1 the Independence of the country was declared. 
In 1825 the first Congress assembled. 
In 1836 Santa Anna was made President, and deprived of 

office in the same year. 
In 1838, another Revolution ; blockade of Vera Cruz by 

the French, who are driven off by the energetic 

Santa Anna. After one or two revolutions he is 

declared Dictator, in 1841. 
In 1843, a f ter another revolution, a new and entirely 

intolerant Constitution is adopted. 
In 1846, after several years' turbulent history, in which 

Santa Anna plays the principal part, a war is begun 

with the United States. 
In 1848, the war closes with Santa Anna's defeat, and 

peace is concluded with the United States. 
In 1853, after several more revolutions, Santa Anna turns 

up again as Dictator, but is obliged to resign the 

next year. 
In 1856 begins a strong movement against the Church, 

under Comonfort, who becomes President, and 

effects the sequestration of church property. He 

is not long in power. 



14.8' MEXICO AS IT IS. 

In 1859, the famous Miramon appears for a brief period 
as President, and reappears at the head of the 
Church party, in i860, to make way the next year 
for the liberal President, and afterwards Dictator Ju- 
arez. 

Then came the French invasion, terminated in 1867 
by the execution of Maximilian and the undis- 
puted sway of Juarez, who at his death is succeeded 
by Lerdo, the present occupant of this most un- 
steady seat of power being Diaz. 



EXPENSE OF A TRIP TO MEXICO. 

Ihere are excursion tickets issued by the Alexandre 
Steamer line in New York, to Vera Cruz and back, for 
1 1 50 ; or you take rail to New Orleans and purchase an 
excursion ticket there, the latter costing $100 in gold. 
Or again, one can take a steamer to Havana, and thence 
proceed by a French Messagerie boat, or an English mail- 
steamer to Vera Cruz. First class fare from Vera Cruz to 
the City of Mexico, $16. Comfortable lodgings and board 
can be obtained in the capital for $2 or $3 a day, from which 
few data an estimate for the whole trip can easily be made. 

For further valuable practical information, see "Fer- 
guson's Anecdotical Guide to Mexico," recently published. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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